


Invasion!

by EaglePursuit



Series: Another Summer's Sunny Days [20]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alien Invasion, Dana - Freeform, Dipcifica, F/F, F/M, Gradual Dipcifica, Lillian - Freeform, Post-Gravity Falls, Returning to Gravity Falls, Sam - Freeform, Witchcraft, Zadtig
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:47:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 24,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25866166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EaglePursuit/pseuds/EaglePursuit
Summary: The finale for the Another Summer's Sunny Days series. An alien invasion force has descended on the quiet community of Gravity Falls in the middle of the night and it's up to the Pines family and their friends and allies to save the townspeople.
Relationships: Pacifica Northwest/Dipper Pines, Wendy Corduroy/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Another Summer's Sunny Days [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1792519
Comments: 5
Kudos: 30





	1. A Star Falls on Lookout Point

**Author's Note:**

> Based on: Disney’s Gravity Falls  
> Created by: Alex Hirsch
> 
> Beta readers: my wife & PK2317  
> Art by: KID | @KIDWMA

Invasion!

Chapter 1

A Star Falls on Lookout Point

Wendy and Sam held hands in the peaceful quietude of the night over the large center console of Wendy’s Humvee. The relationship, which they had maintained in secret since June, was the longest of the redhead’s storied dating career. It had been ‘easy come, easy go’ with her old relationships and she had not been upset for long over any of them when they ended. Then came Sam and her perspective began to change. Being with her made Wendy feel more serious and mature and she was getting used to the idea of being committed to someone, working through differences rather than breaking up over them. Putting in that level of effort had been an unappealing prospect with most of her past partners. Putting effort into  _ anything _ was generally a no-go for Wendy. With Sam, it seemed worthwhile.

Wendy was also working up the courage to bring their relationship out in the open. She wanted to. It felt right to her. She wasn’t sure exactly what kind of reception she would get from her family and friends, but she felt like she was almost ready to deal with their reactions, no matter if they were good or bad. 

The fall semester would be starting soon and the rigors and obligations of high school would take over their lives again. And so they were enjoying one of the last nights of summer together, parked at Lookout Point. The view out the Humvee’s windshield was bisected by the cliffs on the far side of the valley. Below the cliffs lay the town of Gravity Falls, lit by an orderly grid of street lights, business signs, and the occasional headlights or taillights of cars venturing out late after dark. Above the cliffs was a clear night sky, unadorned by the moon. The vast panoply of stars was on display for their enjoyment. A faint trail of light was visible across the middle of the sky, called Milky Way by the ancients. It was the perfect night for stargazing and they were hoping to spot a late Perseid meteor.

Sam suddenly leaned forward, craning her neck to look up, and pointed. “What’s that, a plane?”

“Hmm. That’s weird,” Wendy muttered and leaned forward also, draping an arm across the top of the steering wheel. 

What appeared to be a star was suddenly increasing in size and brightness. It transformed into a churning vortex of kaleidoscopic color and emitted a streak of fire, before shrinking into oblivion. The fireball, which initially appeared to be a shooting star, continued its trajectory towards the horizon, then unexpectedly veered the other direction.

As it did so, dozens upon dozens of other vortexes opened, each disgorging its own fireball and vanishing away. The previously peaceful sky was a chaos of wildly maneuvering meteors as if the sky itself was falling. They drew closer to the ground and slowed, shedding their sheaths of fire for glinting metallic skin; each one setting a unique course for a predetermined destination on the ground.

“I don’t think it’s the Perseids, Sam.” Wendy furrowed her brow with concern as the strange objects grew closer. “It’s...time to go!” She started the Humvee’s big diesel engine and turned on the headlights.

One of the unidentified flying objects, about the size of a large car, changed its heading and raced towards them, its silvery saucer shape becoming visible as it approached. Wendy had spun the Humvee around to follow the gravel road back to town when a shimmering beam of coherent energy hit the hood and the engine died. 

Wendy turned the key again, but it wouldn’t start. She looked at Sam. “Run!” The two girls jumped out of the vehicle and tried to sprint down the road, but they were blocked by the saucer, which came down on landing legs spanning their path. They looked around for a way out. 

A squad of eight alien soldiers spilled out of a hatch on the bottom of the saucer and spread out, pointing strange-looking weapons at the girls as they tried to surround them. They were tall and slender with grayish-green skin and almond-shaped opalescent blue eyes. They moved in a line abreast, equally spaced apart, with their weapons at the ready to shoot or strike.

Wendy glanced back towards the overlook and noticed a sign by the edge, marking the top of the Cliff Base Trail, a narrow switchback that descended into the forest below. She grabbed Sam’s arm and pulled her towards it. The alien soldiers followed them without hesitation.

The girls reached the edge and were stopped short by what they saw. Dozens and dozens of saucers were hovering over Gravity Falls and landing in neighborhoods. An enormous circular ship, significantly larger than the rest, was preparing to alight on top of Circle Park, which it easily dwarfed.

While they were distracted by the chilling spectacle, the spacecraft behind them went aloft and flew over their heads. It hovered in the air past the edge of the overlook with no perceivable means of propulsion. Wendy and Sam looked up at it, then back to the aliens on the ground, approaching with their weapons leveled. They took another step towards Cliff Base Trail. A laser blast emanated from the saucer and exploded the ground in front of them. 

There would be no escape. It was clear the invaders meant to capture, not kill. Wendy and Sam fell to their knees with their hands in the air.

* * *

Dipper and Mabel woke in the attic to the sound of crashing furniture and breaking glass coming from downstairs. They looked at each other in wordless agreement then threw their sheets off themselves and raced for their bedroom door. Dipper grasped the doorknob only to have the veneered surface of the cheap particleboard smash into him as it was kicked in, staggering him backwards. The first alien through the door was slightly tall with greenish-gray skin and glistering blue eyes like the one Dipper had seen in the cell at the secret military base. They hit him in the face with the butt of their weapon, sending him careening backwards onto the floor by his bed.

They were followed through the door by three more alien soldiers. Two of them lifted now-screaming Mabel and pinned her to her bed together, trying to fit her wrists with restraints made of exotic metal, bright white like zinc, but hard and light. They stood on either side of her and wrestled the thrashing girl. She gave a throaty yell, somewhere between a scream and a growl, as she bit the one on her right on their arm with an intense fierceness born of desperation. They pulled away, yelping in their strange, gurgling language and clutched their wounded limb to its body.

Before the fourth could take their place, Mabel reached under her pillow, pulling her grappling hook out and shot the one holding her other wrist in their narrow chest. The impact of the heavy treble hook knocked them stumbling backwards, and they fell through the triangular window between the siblings’ beds. The fourth alien and the bitten one reengaged with Mabel and increased their efforts, disarming her before she could retract the grappling hook. 

Meanwhile, the first one struggled with Dipper on the floor, strangling him with their weapon across his throat. He gasped for air, breath rattling, and fumbled under his bed for a weapon of his own; something, anything to strike back with. His fingers found a plastic cylinder with a textured grip. He whipped it around and pointed it at his attacker’s face, flicking the switch with his thumb. Biological structures within the alien’s gemlike eyes constricted and shifted against the sudden flood of pink light, changing the way they sparkled. The alien began to shrink, starting with its head. Within moments they were down to the size of an action figure standing on Dipper’s chest.

He quickly rolled over with no regard for the now-tiny alien’s safety and shined the light on the other two aliens that had shackled Mabel, shrinking both of them to the size of their peer. They took cover in the sheets of Mabel’s bed when they comprehended their sudden disadvantage and opened fire with their weapons.

Dipper flinched as he was struck by needles of light that raised minuscule blisters. “Gah! It’s just like the ghost UFOs in the Archive!” He reached around and threw a pillow at them.

“Get these things off me!” Mabel seethed through clenched teeth as she struggled against the shackles on her wrists.

Dipper quickly picked up a cup from his nightstand and dropped it over the alien that had been strangling him a short time ago before it could get away. “Hold on, Mabel. I think we’re going to have to get Grunkle Ford to release you.” He found a piece of stiff paper and slid it under the cup, trapping the alien inside, then dumped them unceremoniously out the broken window like an insect, all the while wincing from being hit by tiny lasers from the other two aliens, entrenched in the sheets of Mabel’s bed. He did the same trick with the cup to them and the shooting stopped.

* * *

Dipper led the way down the stairs with a putter in one hand and the crystal flashlight in the other. Mabel carried her grappling hook at the ready despite her bound wrists. They found Ford in the living room stunning the last alien with a ray-gun. All around the shack, windows were broken in and door jambs were splintered. McGucket, Soos, Melody, and Abuelita stood by tensely, ready in case more came in. Soos was carrying his eight-ball cane like a club and Melody had a long kitchen knife clutched in one hand while Abuelita was fiercely gripping a cast-iron skillet sporting a notable dent.

Ford looked up at them in relief. “Thank goodness. Are you two okay?”

“Yeah! But now I know what aliens taste like. Blergh!” Mabel stuck out her tongue disgustedly then looked around the room with concern. “Where’s Grunkle Stan?”

Ford, Soos, and Dipper ran out the front door to find Stan’s RV rocking frenetically and producing a cacophony of colorful curse words, grunts, bangs, and thumps. Ford ran up to the side door and prepared himself to storm inside with his ray-gun ready. Before he could, a pair of aliens crashed out through the windshield and retreated into the darkness.

The side door opened. Stan stepped out and leaned against the side of the RV, breathing hard. “Oh, hey. It’s about time you guys showed up to help.” —he slipped the brass knuckles off his fingers and shook his hands tenderly— “I already took care of ‘em, no thanks to you.”

They heard a faint humming sound in the distance. Ford pointed back to the Shack. “Everyone inside now!” They ran through the front door as a formation of saucers flew low overhead. 

Once everyone was safe and accounted for and Ford removed Mabel’s shackles with a precision cutting torch brought up from his lab, she and Dipper began texting their friends to see if anyone else was attacked. There were no responses.

Melody clung to Soos. “What are we going to do?” Her voice was filled with worry.

“It’s best to assume the whole town has been attacked. Maybe even the whole world,” Ford said, taking stock of the situation. “Tonight we stay on guard in case they come back. At daybreak I will take the invisibility blanket and reconnoiter the town; see what’s going on there. After that, we make a new plan.”

Dipper’s eyes lit up. “Hang on!” There was one person he hadn’t tried to communicate with yet. He ran upstairs and pulled Dana’s grimoire out from under his mattress, then carried it back downstairs.

“Bro-bro, you can’t text Hecate with her own book.” Mabel looked at him in confusion. She referred to Dana by her alter ego to protect her witchy secret.

He explained, “She does have magic pages to communicate with other witches though.” He opened the spellbook and flipped through it until he found a page labelled ‘Grandma’ and began writing on the right-hand margin.

~~ Dana ~~ Dipper:

Hello, Dana’s grandmother. Are you okay?

Grandma:

Yes, I am well. I assume this is Dana’s friend with the Mark?

~~ Dana ~~ Dipper:

Um, yes? Whatever that is.

Grandma:

I had been wondering what happened to her grimoire.

She refused to divulge what she had done with it.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised it is with you.

~~ Dana ~~ Dipper:

Heh. Yeah. Anyway, are you aware of the aliens?

Grandma:

Aliens?

~~ Dana ~~ Dipper:

Aliens attacked us tonight.

We think they got the whole town.

We haven’t been able to reach anyone else.

Are you someplace safe?

Grandma:

Dana and I are in the Coven Sanctuary.

The whole town? Really?

~~ Dana ~~ Dipper:

We aren’t sure yet. Going to check at daylight.

Grandma:

Please keep me informed of what you find.

I will convene a Council of the Elders to discuss it.

~~ Dana ~~ Dipper:

If we fight back, we would like your help.

Grandma:

I understand. We will discuss that as well.

* * *

At daybreak Pacifica sat shivering in the dewy grass of Circle Park with her parents. Nearly all the residents of Gravity Falls were there, each was wearing pajamas as they had all been pulled unsuspecting from their beds in the middle of the night by the invaders. Families all around her were huddled together for warmth and support. But not the Northwests.

“I can’t believe they’re treating me like this! Northwests are not common folk!” Preston raged to no one in particular as he paced on the grass. “I asked to speak to a manager, but they just babbled at me in their weird language. They don’t even have the decency to speak English. I demand special treatment! Don’t they know who I am!?” 

No one was listening to him, least of all Priscilla, who was cradling her knees to her chest on the grass, weeping inconsolably with smears of night cream still on her face. She seemed to be waiting for someone else to do something. Someone else to make her feel better. Someone else to take responsibility. Someone else to make the problem go away. She was used to solving problems by throwing her husband’s money at them and that’s how it had always worked; she paid and someone else took care of the problem. Now none of the other people in the park could do anything about their situation and the aliens were decidedly uninterested in bribes, not that they had brought any money when they were captured.

Pacifica herself stared bleakly into the middle distance and idly fidgeted with the embroidered cuffs on her silk pajamas, now grass-stained and damp with dew. Once again, the world she was accustomed to was ripped out from under her, just like N.M.A.T. Just like losing the mansion. Just like transferring to public school. And once again, her parents, the two people she was supposed to be able to rely on for emotional support, were of no use whatsoever. She was in such a state of shock that she couldn’t even feel angry at them. Or sorry for them. She couldn’t feel anything for them at all. She wished Dipper and Mabel were there. Or even Stan Pines, the twins’ gruff great uncle who had found her wandering the weirdened streets of town and taken her in during N.M.A.T.

The dawn sky was blotted out by an enormous flying saucer which had landed over the park as the first prisoners arrived. It was larger than the whole park by several blocks in all directions and only a thin sliver of sky was visible between the buildings of the town and the edges of the giant ship. Beneath it, the captured townspeople were surrounded by an encampment of aliens. They didn’t even bother erecting barriers. The prisoners were cowed into submission by the shocking suddenness of their capture and the aliens’ overwhelming show of force.

Pacifica looked up dully when a commotion rolled through the crowd. A squad of alien soldiers pushed their way into the park and released a new pair of prisoners, two older teen girls. She saw the taller one had long red hair and it took her a moment to register that the girl was Wendy, a friend of Dipper’s and Mabel’s and another member of the Resistance from N.M.A.T. Wendy and the other girl, a blonde sporting a short undercut hairdo and thick-rimmed glasses, were dressed in regular clothes instead of pajamas and wore boots unlike most of the people there, who were barefoot in most cases or at best wearing slippers. 

Pacifica somehow found the apparent readiness of the two older teens reassuring. She stood unsteadily and impulsively walked towards the two older girls, plodding along on bare feet until she reached them.

“Yeah, I’m not surprised my family’s not here. Dad and my bros probably hot-footed it into the basement bunker as soon as the aliens tried to break into the house,” Wendy was saying to the other girl. She saw the thirteen year old standing there, a few feet away, with a blank expression on her face. “Hey Pacifica,” —she looked past the young heiress and saw Preston and Priscilla, who hadn’t even acknowledged that their daughter had left their proximity, ranting and wailing ineffectually on the grass— “this is my friend, Sam. You can hang out with us if you want, okay?”

Pacifica nodded numbly. She took another step closer and inhaled deeply. She let it out slowly and the shock began to unclench itself from her mind so she could think. Hope and relief surfaced within her and she decided her best bet was to stick with these two. Her parents would be less than worthless.

People around them began to shout and point at the park’s clocktower, now dwarfed by the enormous saucer above it. An alien, distinguishable as a leader of their kind by a simple band of exotic material around the crown of their head, surmounted the tower carrying a small, ugly man clad in striped pajamas. Despite the being’s willowy physique and the proportionate weight of their load, they had little difficulty with the ascent. The alien stood on the peaked roof and grasped the man by the top of his head, holding him out above the ground. The people gasped. It was Toby Determined.

Toby’s eyes rolled back and as the alien spoke in their gurgling language, he spoke with an inhuman, deep voice, “We have come seeking the Kyteri. If the Kyteri is not returned to us within two planetary cycles, we will begin terminating humans until it is found.” 

* * *

Ford pulled the invisibility blanket off and stepped through the residential entrance of the Mystery Shack. The others looked up when he came in. They were all tense. Stan and Abuelita had prepared a large breakfast of stancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausage for everyone, albeit with some difficulty due to the large dent the skillet suffered when Abuelita had used it to strike an alien attempting to climb in through a window. However no one was in the mood to eat; most of the food sat on paper plates, growing cold.

Ford picked up a sausage link, sat wearily in the wide yellow armchair in the living room, and addressed them, “I wasn’t able to get a very good count, but by my estimation, the aliens have rounded up the entire population of Gravity Falls and detained them in Circle Park underneath some sort of mothership. 

They’ve established a double perimeter around the edge of it, both for defense and to keep the prisoners in. There are hundreds of armed aliens on the ground and dozens of the smaller saucers patrolling in the air.

“What I couldn’t figure out is why they are here and why they’ve taken everyone prisoner. They don’t seem to be interested in Crash Site Omega. They aren’t stealing anything. They’re just holding all the people and I don’t know why.”

While Ford ate and related additional details of the alien encampment and troop deployments, Dipper wrote them down in Dana’s grimoire and passed them on to Lillian. 

She was the only Elder of the Gravity Falls Coven who had been in the Sanctuary under the forest during the night and had been alarmed to discover that only eleven other witches, including Dana, had been there and remained free. All the others, including the other five Elders, were incommunicado and presumed captured. Nevertheless, she convened a meeting of those present to share and discuss the information from Dipper.

Grandma:

We have held a vote to decide what to do.

~~ Dana ~~ Dipper:

Will you help us free Gravity Falls?

Grandma:

Dana was very persuasive

And the vote was unanimous

We have agreed to fight alongside you to free our families and coven

What is your plan?


	2. Assault on Circle Park

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Pines family and their allies bring the fight back to the aliens.

Invasion!

Chapter 2

Assault on Circle Park

McGucket slid his hands into the arms of Ford’s repaired exoskeleton suit and grasped the control sticks. He carefully gave one of the sticks a practice twist and the suit’s metal fist slammed into the ground with a clank, causing the other Shackers to look up at him in alarm. “Shucky dern! This ain’t the biggest robotamajig I ever hootenannied around in, but I’m cogitatin’ it’ll do plumb nice.” He kicked the pedals and made the suit stand upright on its hind legs and his white beard flapped in the light afternoon breeze, almost majestically if it weren’t for the bandage, some bits of scrambled eggs left over from breakfast, and several parasites of questionable provenance decorating it.

Ford made a few final adjustments to one of his magnet guns with a screwdriver. He had taken the grip off and replaced it with a swivelling pedestal stand, the trigger with a tiny control lever. He carefully positioned it in the center of the bed of Soos’s truck and gave Dipper the signal. Dipper pointed the crystal flashlight at it and thumbed the switch. The blue light shined on the magnet gun and caused it to grow until the truck’s suspension squatted under the weight. With a huge gun in the back, Soos’s truck now looked like the kind of jury-rigged combat vehicle insurgencies built in third world countries.

“Hit me next!” Stan said, slipping on his brass knuckles. He’d opted to wear a blue Hawaiian shirt and khaki pants for what he jokingly referred to as the ‘biggest boxing match of my life’.

Dipper pointed the blue light at him, not turning it off until the gray-haired septuagenarian was twelve feet tall. “That’s as large as this thing can safely go, Grunkle Stan.”

“Oh, man.” Soos laughed at his former boss. “We could glue some hair on you, and you could be the Mystery Shack’s next attraction, Mr. Pines. Just imagine: The Gravity Falls Skunk-Ape! I’ll give you the premium spot in the corner next to the Cornicorn.”

“Don’t even think about it, Soos,” Stan chastised him gruffly. “I’m hairy enough as it is.” He stretched his shoulders and loosened up his back with a few practice swings. “Alright. Who’s ready to go kick E.T.’s butt?”

The Shackers cheered in response.

Ford pulled Dipper and Mabel aside as Soos started the truck. “Take these” —he handed them each a ray-gun— “and skirt around the perimeter of the encampment. Look for weak spots in their defenses while we distract them.” He opened a long, thin case marked ‘Project 618’ and reverently held up the Quantum Destablizer, the weapon he had hand-built over thirty years to destroy Bill Cipher. “Take this too; for any high-value targets you might find. It’s slow but powerful. Don’t use it unless you have time to fire or if anyone is standing behind your target.”

Dipper gasped involuntarily as the large weapon was handed to him. He could feel its weight in his arms. It felt like responsibility. He ran his hand over it in awe then carefully slung the carry-strap over his shoulder. It looked even larger on his small frame.

“What about you, Grunkle Ford?” asked Mabel.

He patted the enlarged magnet gun in the back of the truck and smiled grimly. “I’ll be hunting for saucers.”

Dipper and Mabel rode in the cab of the truck next to Soos as they drove through the empty streets of Gravity Falls with Fiddleford and Stan, dubbed Mecha-McGucket and Super-Stan by Soos and Mabel, stomping along behind them. Ford sat in the bed next to the magnet gun. The picturesque vistas of the quaint little town were ruined by the ominous silver bulge of the alien mothership sticking out in the middle of it. The Shackers eyed it nervously as it grew in their perspectives. 

When they were within view of the encampment under the mothership Ford knocked on the rear window of the truck and pointed to the sky. A saucer patrol had taken notice of them and banked around, heading their way. He turned a crank and swiveled the magnet gun around to aim at them.

“This is our cue to exit,” Dipper announced and opened the door. Soos stopped briefly so he and Mabel could get out safely, then sped away, the magnet gun already firing into the air with a loud ‘bzzzap-bzzzap’.

Stan and McGucket broke out in a run and charged into the encampment with a “For Gravity Falls!” and a “Yee-ha!”, just outside the edge of the mothership, and chaos ensued as they began flipping and smashing parked saucers, each the size of the Stanmobile, and aliens ran pell mell to avoid being crushed. The two giants pushed deeper into the alien defensive line as the alien soldiers fled before them, almost reaching the mothership itself before they met any significant resistance.

It didn’t take long for the alien ground forces to rally around their officers and initiate a counter-charge against the two rampaging men. Stan slammed a foot and a half wide knuckle duster into the first alien to run within range and sent them flying back. They hurtled into a garbage can and knocked it over. McGucket hit the next, sending them clear into the park. Then they were swarmed, aliens clamoring over them, trying to restrain Stan, and in McGucket’s case, pull him from the exoskeleton suit.

The old men resorted to pulling aliens off each other like oversized ticks, one after the other, and flinging them into the crowds that mobbed them, constantly on the verge of being overwhelmed. It was an exhausting bout for the two, but the aliens were slowly racking up wounded to little avail.

Ford and Soos stayed mobile in their ersatz technical truck, driving around the periphery of the battle to avoid being outflanked. Whenever the small, circling saucercraft attempted to target the two giants, Ford drove them away with a flurry of magnetic blasts, occasionally hitting a saucer and sending it crashing into the streets.

The aliens, apparently realizing that physical capture of the men was proving too costly, adapted their tactics and began shooting laser blasts at Stan and McGucket from beyond the range of their hands. This finally began to tip the battle back in favor of the aliens.

Stan picked up a parked car and held it as a shield before throwing it at a pocket of aliens. More were pouring in from other areas of the encampment and he was being peppered with laser hits. He keyed a radio inside his pocket, “Ford, it’s getting hot over here! The little buggers’ laser guns hurt!”

“Just hang in there! The more that attack you, the more likely someone else will be able to break through to the people inside.”

“Easy for you to say.” Stan grumbled. “You’re not the one gettin’ shot at.”

* * *

Dipper and Mabel ran across the empty streets of Gravity Falls, dodging from alley to alley like mice avoiding hawks, skirting the edge of the encampment, and looking for targets of opportunity. They couldn’t see the other Shackers anymore, but magnetic blasts were flying through the air, intermittently sending a circling saucer crashing into the town. The aliens had taken advantage of the tall buildings near the perimeter and set lookout posts on the roofs with overlapping fields of fire, which made it difficult for the pair to move or find positions to attack from without risk of drawing attention.

Dipper peeked around the corner of one alley, eyeing a lookout post above a bank. “I could hit it with the Quantum Destabilizer, but we will have to get out of here fast before that other nest sends soldiers after us.” 

“I don’t know. Maybe we should move on and find another target,” Mabel suggested worriedly.

He closed his eyes and tried to visualize how the attack would play out; how quickly the aliens would respond versus how quickly he and Mabel could flee.

“Pssst. Hey, guys,” said a voice.

Dipper opened his eyes and scanned his surroundings suspiciously. “Did you hear that, Mabel?” There wasn’t anyone else around and no obvious places anyone could be hiding. He scrutinized the sewer grate nearby just in case.

To their surprise, a public garbage can on the sidewalk suddenly stood up on two black-booted human legs and ran into the alley with them, causing them to scramble backwards in alarm. It said a phrase in the magic language of witches and turned into their friend, Dana, wearing her Hecate costume.

“Guess who’s not grounded anymore!” Gravity Falls’ self-appointed heroine flourished her hands dramatically and grinned under her zanni mask.

Mabel wrapped the young witch in a hug. “Dana!”

Dipper pulled her grimoire out of his vest pocket and passed it to her. “Oh, man. Are we glad to see you.”

Dana slipped the book into a satchel, different from the one that was currently hiding under Dipper’s bed. “I hope you got some good use out of this,” she said with a wink.

“A little.” He shrugged facetiously. “By the way, did your grandmother give it to you?”

She was surprised by the question. “Huh? Oh, yeah. It’s kind of a family heirloom. Grandma was not at all pleased with me that you had it.”

“Huh. I think your grandmother knows my great uncle.”

“Where are the other witches?” Mabel interrupted.

“We’re all spread out to surround the aliens. All twelve of us,” Dana replied with an optimistic grin. “We’re just about to launch a coordinated attack. This is my street, wanna help?”

* * *

Despite Ford’s best efforts, the airborne saucers were getting the better of them. They had divided their attention; half were pursuing Ford and Soos through the streets while the others viciously strafed the two giants in attacks coordinated with the ground forces.

Stan and McGucket stood back to back as they were surrounded. The air was filled with zinging laser blasts and the pieces of wrecked spacecraft that they were using as shields were being slowly burned away to nothing. Stan grunted stubbornly as a laser from a saucer penetrated his defenses and hit him in the arm.

“These varmints is gettin’ us durn near hornswoggled!” McGucket remarked angrily into the exoskeleton’s radio. “It’s ‘bout time we skedaddled.”

“You know the plan. Just hang on a little more, Fiddleford,” Ford radioed back.

A saucer pilot made a mistake, flying too low on a strafing run. Stan picked up half of a wrecked car to shield himself, but McGucket leaped into the air. The craft slammed into him and he clung to it with the exoskeleton’s metal claws, overwhelming its anti-gravity propulsion, and dragging it down into the ground. He yelled and jumped clear as it hit the ground and tumbled. Stan ran up next to him and picked up the small craft, then chucked it into the mob of aliens with a shout, slowing their onslaught temporarily. “You okay, slick? That was a heck of a move!”

Just then, bright colorful lights filled the air around them, as if someone were shooting fireworks into the aliens. The aliens shifted some of their laser fire from the giant man and the roboticist to two regular-sized women standing on the street nearby, the air shimmering around them with magic. The women were dressed in dark red hooded robes and plain, black domino masks and were flinging magic spells into the alien masses. One woman cast a spell on the ground, buckling the pavement and raising it to form a barricade to hide behind.

Stan waved at them. “Finally! I’ve never been so happy to see a bunch of hags,” he yelled over the din of battle.

One of the witches beckoned them over behind the wall of pavement. Stan and McGucket had to crouch to hide behind it. Imperious-looking eyes were visible behind her mask. “We’re not hags, Mr. Pines! Now hold still. I’m going to put some protective spells on you.” She dipped a hand into a satchel on her hip, then placed it on Stan’s chest, smearing him with curious substances while incanting words he didn’t understand, in a way that made his hearing aid act up.

Stan stood up feeling invigorated. “Hot tamales! This is amazing!” He flexed his biceps. “I haven’t felt this good in decades.” A laser blast drilled into his chest, leaving a singed hole in his Hawaiian shirt. “Whoa. Didn’t even hurt. You ladies are alright!” 

The witch performed the same spells on McGucket, then he and Stan charged back into the mass of aliens like rampaging elephants, scattering and trampling them.


	3. Revenge of the Deathslayer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Pines family and their allies gain the upper hand, allowing Wendy, Pacifica, and Sam to make their escape, but the aliens have a secret defense

Invasion!

Chapter 3

Revenge of the Deathslayer

Wendy, Sam, Pacifica, and the other hostages listened as the battle raged out of view near the west edge of the mothership which stood over them like an oppressive cloud. Its silvery belly seemed dark gray as it cast a midday shadow over the park, denying them the sun’s warmth and light. The streetlights on the avenues nearest the park had remained lit due to the unnatural eclipse, bathing the park in a surreal twilight. 

A small, low-flying saucer was hit by a flash of blue energy and crashed, one of many that the people in the park had seen go down in the narrow band of the sky between the buildings and the mothership. This one must have managed to crash into a significant piece of infrastructure because there was a loud bang, crackling sparks, a cloud of acrid smoke, and the streetlights on that side of the park all went out at once, casting the park into greater dimness.

Little by little, the alien guards were thinning out as they were called away to reinforce the outer perimeter. Wendy guided Sam and Pacifica away from the loudest part of the battle, to the edge of the park closest to where the Ice Cream Palace was just a few blocks away. Coincidentally, they stood under the tree Wendy had crashed the ice cream truck into some months before. In the half light she could still make out scars in the trunk where the truck had scraped against it.

The alien guard standing closest to them spotted something. They shouted in their gurgling language and began firing towards a spot on the outer perimeter. The girls couldn’t quite make out the target. It seemed like a quick-moving person-sized pink bubble that darted across the avenue. A bright blast like an exploding firework struck the guard from out of nowhere and they fell to the ground, unconscious. The sudden attack left a visceral buzzy feeling in the ears of the people nearby, causing some of the hostages to run towards the middle of the park fearfully.

Wendy didn’t see it as something to be afraid of. She’d been waiting for something like this since she and Sam were apprehended on Lookout Point. She didn’t know exactly what it would be, just some kind of opportunity; an opening. “Come on!” she yelled, sensing the moment was upon them. She grabbed the other girls’ hands and dragged them over the split-rail fence, out of the park, and into the streets.

“Stop! Wait for me!” came a whiny voice behind them, but they kept running, not looking back.

They heard yelling in the aliens’ gurgling tongue. Twinkling, zinging laser blasts began impacting on the ground around them, sending chips of asphalt flying, but they just ran.

It was only a few short blocks to the Ice Cream Palace. As they neared it, they saw a woman in a robe and mask peek over an upside down car in front of them. She said something in a language that Wendy didn’t recognize, but the words made her ears tingle uncomfortably. The woman’s hand lit on fire and she stood up. Wendy threw herself to the ground and pulled the other girls down with her. A fireball whizzed over their heads, so close they could feel the heat, resulting in gurgling screams behind them, and the laser blasts stopped.

The girls scrambled to their feet and waved in gratitude to the witch as they ran to the doorway of the Ice Cream Palace, still not looking back. Wendy fumbled in her hip pocket and pulled out a set of keys. She picked one, used it to unlock the store’s front door, and pulled it open, ushering the others inside in front of her. She walked straight to the wall behind the counter and flipped a switch. Nothing happened. Of course! The power was out, just like the streetlights outside.

Wendy opened one of the glass-topped freezers. “Eat some ice cream if you’re hungry. It’s all gonna melt anyway.”

Pacifica and Sam didn’t need a second invitation. Nobody in the park had any breakfast to eat. They helped themselves to the freezer, grabbing a three gallon bucket each. Sam chose rocky road and Pacifica, orange sherbet. They dug in with plastic spoons they found in a cup on the counter. 

Wendy went into the manager’s office to find the keys for the store’s truck, confiscated from her by her boss the month previous. She came back out with a victorious grin on her face and held them up with a jangle. “I popped the lock on his desk drawer with a letter opener. Easy as that, man.”

The front door flew open again, startling the girls. Toby Determined crawled inside and slumped against the wall, out of breath. “Oh, this is terrible! I don’t know what they did to me. Take me with you! I beg you.” Like Pacifica and most of the detainees in the park, he was barefoot and wearing his pajamas, a sleeveless white undershirt and shorts.

“Sure, man. I don’t see why not.” Wendy grabbed a drumstick cone out of the freezer and ripped the wrapper off. “Everyone get up. We’re leaving. The truck’s in the garage in the back.”

Toby groaned. “Already? I just got here.” Nevertheless, he staggered to his feet and quickly followed the girls, eager to be as far from the aliens as possible.

The store’s garage was pitch black except for three narrow shafts of light coming in through windows in the garage door behind the ice cream truck. Wendy led the way, feeling with her hands. She found the beat-up ice cream truck and opened the door. The interior light was like a beacon that guided the other three the rest of the way. They hurriedly got inside the vehicle.

Wendy climbed into the driver’s seat of the truck and started the engine. She pushed the button on a small remote control clipped to the visor. Nothing happened. “Ha! Right. No power. We better get out of here before the garage fills with fumes.” Before any of the others could react, she slipped the transmission into reverse and stomped on the gas pedal. The truck’s back-up alarm began to beep as the wheels squealed loudly on the smooth garage floor. The tires found traction and the rear bumper slammed through the garage door, ripping it into pieces. Suddenly they were on the narrow service street behind the Ice Cream Palace in the middle of a battle between a pair of witches and a squad of eight aliens.

“Head to Adams Street, take a right!” Sam pointed, ducking low.

Laser blasts peppered the side of the ice cream truck as Wendy shifted the transmission into drive and spun the tires again, the other direction this time. She drove past the two witches and turned right at the next intersection onto the avenue that ran west, parallel to the park and under the edge of the mothership. The road was littered with downed saucer wreckage and battle debris. Wendy was forced to slow the truck down to ‘sales speed’ in order to navigate the mess and avoid getting a flat tire on sharp bits of wreckage.

A block later, they drove through an intersection and saw a company of alien soldiers exchanging fire with someone taking cover in a crater in the middle of a street that headed back in the direction of the park. Wendy was focused on driving past as quickly as possible, but Pacifica shouted, “Hey, stop! That’s Dipper and Mabel in there!” The intensity of Pacifica’s tone, and the fact that it was the first thing the usually opinionated thirteen year old had said in hours prompted Wendy to slam on the brakes, bringing the truck to a sudden halt and sending the unsecured occupants to the floor.

* * *

Pacifica had been out of sorts all day. First was the shock of being captured. Then she put her trust in Wendy and Sam and passively let the older girls lead her. But something about the scene playing out the side window of the truck galvanized her into action. She wasn’t sure if it was seeing the best friend she’d ever had in danger. Or that the boy who she wasn’t doing a very good job of accepting being ‘just friends’ with, if she were being honest with herself, was also in danger. Or that the situation was something she could actually apply her limited personal skill and acumen towards resolving. Whatever it was that motivated her, it turned her blood to fire.

The aliens were in the process of getting into position to enfilade the occupants of the crater when the rear door of the ice cream truck opened and Pacifica flew out, running barefoot through the debris-strewn street. She slid the last few feet into the crater, tearing the pant leg of her silk pajamas.

Mabel fired a few shots from her ray-gun and ducked below the edge of the crater. She turned to find Pacifica crouching in the middle of it. “Paz, what are you doing here!?”

“Hi guys, and um, witch-girl.” Pacifica assessed the unexpected third occupant of the crater, taking in her black velvet opera cloak and zanni mask. “Carnival was in February, you know. You missed it.”

Mabel smiled and made the introductions. “Pacifica, this is our witch friend, Hecate. Hecate, Pacifica.”

The witch’s hand exploded in crackling electricity, and the power in her intoned words made the air ripple and vibrate. She launched a lightning bolt at one of the aliens. “Oh, ha ha! It’s totally nice to meet you...for the first time ever. Pacifica, was it?”

Taken aback, Pacifica nodded uncertainly at the strangely familiar witch then scrambled over to Dipper’s side.

He held his ray-gun up with one hand and fired over the side of the crater without even looking. “Hey there, Pacifica.”

Pacifica rolled her eyes. “You’re the worst. Give me that thing.” She didn’t wait for him to relinquish it voluntarily, instead taking it from his sweaty hands.

Dipper humored her, “Yeah, okay. You try it. I’m not very good at this war stuff anyway.”

She examined the weapon for a moment, then held it with both hands at arm’s length. She stood, aimed, and fired, then crouched down again in rapid succession. She rolled to her left and did it again, then crossed the crater and did it a third time. Within thirty seconds the last remaining conscious member of the alien company was making a lone retreat back to the safety of the mothership.

Dipper’s eyes were agog. “H—how did you…Where did you learn that?”

“Puh-lease. I have a level 100 Deathslayer in Bloodcraft: Overdeath. It’s an F.P.S. I play on my Gamestation sometimes.” Pacifica blew on the end of the ray-gun and smirked at him playfully. She gestured at the crater and the rubble-strewn street around them “This is just like the Crimson Gulch battleground.”

“Seriously!? My Medicant is only level 56. I...I...I haven’t even been to Crimson Gulch,” he sputtered in exasperation.

The ice cream truck pulled up to the edge of the crater and Wendy, Sam, and Toby piled out. “What the heck was that, Pacifica!?” Wendy hooted. “Wooo! You go, girl!”

Sam gave her an imaginary fist bump. “Wow, that was crazy! I can’t believe you’ve just been tagging along this whole time with your mouth shut; you were holding out on us.”

Pacifica responded to the praise with a prideful smirk and turned around to assess the overall scene. She and five teens, plus one weakling adult —she wasn’t very optimistic about Toby— were crowded in and around a crater in a street, just on the edge of what had been the aliens’ defensive perimeter. Two were not wearing shoes. They had two ray-guns, witch magic, and whatever Dipper was carrying on his back. Pacifica wasn’t sure what it was, but it looked long-ranged and powerful like a sniper rifle, one of her favorite weapons in Bloodcraft. 

On the other side, the aliens’ lines had contracted due to so many being redeployed to another side of the encampment to support the battle there and none were even close enough to directly shoot at from the crater. Pacifica wasn’t exactly sure what was going on over there, but if the light show coming from that direction was any indication, it was pretty intense. She considered taking charge of this motley crew —she was already starting to think of them as a Pick Up Group— and advancing against the aliens’ new line of defense. She’d led plenty of fire teams in Bloodcraft.

She redirected her attention to the mystery weapon Dipper was carrying. “So, like, what’s that thing?”

He unslung it from his shoulder and patted it. “It’s Grunkle Ford’s Quantum Destabilizer. He gave it to me to hit high-value targets, but I haven’t seen anything I could hit without getting caught.”

“So it’s basically like a bazooka, huh?” A mischievous grin spread across her face and she glanced at the huge vessel looming over the middle of town. “What about that mothership?”

* * *

Stan and McGucket, endowed with magical strength, endurance, and resilience, made a deep salient into the alien encampment, fighting hordes of aliens almost to the edge of the park. Laser blasts sizzled on Stan’s skin without harm, causing him to laugh with delight; he was genuinely grateful for the old witch’s spells that made him feel a third of his age and invincible. He made a mental note to ask if she had a tent at the Swap Meet where he could buy more.

He waved over his partner. “Hey, Old Man McGucket. This is gettin’ kinda boring, doncha think?”

The mechanical shoulders of the exoskeleton McGucket was wearing shrugged inbetween punches.

Stan smiled slyly as he leaped a dozen yards into a clump of aliens and began throwing them, “What’s say we take it up a notch, do some real damage?” He pointed up to the mothership overhead.

McGucket looked up also and let off one of his demented hillbilly cackles.

The two waded through the angry mass of aliens surrounding them to the edge of the encampment, climbing over smashed saucers and wreckage from damaged buildings, punching and crushing as they went. Stan clasped his hands together and held them low to the ground. McGucket placed the exoskeleton suit’s foot in the elder Pines’ hands. They counted to three and Stan launched the roboticist hundreds of feet into the air, up and over, onto the top deck of the enormous saucer.

McGucket landed with a crunch, placing a sizable dent in the shiny, silvery surface. He pushed a button on the exoskeleton’s controls and with a metallic whine, its fingers reconfigured into sharp, flat chisels. He experimentally punched one hand through the saucer’s skin and pried up a section of its exotic plate metal. “Yeehaw!” He gave a gap-toothed grin and tore into the ship like a raccoon in a garbage can.

On the ground, Stan heard a strange noise like an intense, high-frequency electrical buzz in the distance and turned to see a bright, blue bolt of energy fly up obliquely from one of the streets farther around the encampment and tear a smoking gash in the bottom of the mothership. It exited the top side and sailed off into the sky without slowing.

Ford’s voice came over the radio, “That was the Quantum Destabilizer. Dipper’s hitting the mothership.”

It was answered by Dipper’s own radio response. “Actually, that was Pacifica. She’s with us now. She says it’s payback.” 

There was a sudden and noticeable change in the aliens’ behavior. All around the perimeter of the camp, they retreated under the mothership. The remaining smaller saucers that were still flying flew under it and landed in the park among the hostages.

“What’s going on with these freaks? Are they leaving? Did we win?” Stan asked over the radio.

The mothership’s skin shimmered and a translucent red bubble expanded around it. McGucket was pitched into the air as the wall of red energy hit him and landed on the roof of the town’s bowling alley. Another shot from the Destabilizer streaked towards the mothership. The red bubble deflected it with a reverberating hum and it tore into the street, kicking up chunks of pavement. The bubble rippled, then stabilized. Stan saw a nearby witch throw a fireball at the mothership experimentally, but it flamed out against the surface of the bubble ineffectually.

“They’ve raised some kind of energy shield,” Ford radioed back in reply. “We need to get out of here and reassess the situation.” 

To Be Continued...


	4. Distances in Time and Space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Pines and their friends and allies return to the Mystery Shack to develop a new plan for dealing with the alien invaders.

Invasion!

Chapter 4

Distances in Time and Space

Dipper, Mabel, and the witch, Dana, had ridden back to the Mystery Shack in the ice cream truck with their friends and arrived there later than the others. The trip there had been remarkably uneventful, almost unbearably so after the craziness they had experienced in the previous eighteen hours. The aliens remained inside their protective energy field, but that didn’t stop the teens and Toby from jumping at everything that moved outside the ice cream truck. When they finally emerged from the immediate zone of the battle, Wendy drove through the town’s empty streets as fast as the truck could go.

Lillian was outside when they arrived, applying counter-spells to Stan and Old Man McGucket so that they wouldn’t be subject to the negative aspects that follow transformational curses. She still wore her red Elder robe and the plain black domino mask. Stan was complaining about losing the youthful vigor and strength he had enjoyed during the battle. Lillian stonily assured him that if she didn’t remove the spells, in all likelihood he would be unable to walk for several days once they expired.

Dipper found the crystal flashlight, and while Lillian was finishing the magic and Stan was relentlessly wheedling a vague promise from her that she would cast the spells on him again at some indeterminate time in the future, he saw to it that his great uncle was returned to normal size so he could go inside with the others. Well, almost normal size. He had made Stan a little shorter than Ford and was eagerly waiting to see how long it would take for him to notice.

Afterwards, Lillian asked Dipper to take her and Dana to meet Ford. They found him sitting at the Mystery Shack’s dining room table with Toby Determined, speaking in low tones. Dipper introduced them, “Grunkle Ford, this is my friend, Hecate, and her…,” He looked at Lillian, who shook her head subtly. “Uh, mentor. Ladies, this is my great uncle Ford.”

Dipper watched intently while Ford stood and shook their hands, looking each in the eye. When he met Lillian’s imperious gaze he turned pale as a ghost. “It’s—it’s  _ you _ . It  _ is _ you! I saw that spellbook Dipper had, and it looked so familiar. I just knew it.”

“It was a long time ago, Stanford.” Lillian regarded him coolly as she withdrew her hand.

There was a pause and the tension was palpable as the two stared each other down. Dipper glanced at Dana. The young witch with the distinctive cleft chin seemed as uneasy as he was. Sometimes adults are weird.

Ford finally spoke. “Of—of course.” —he nodded sadly— “I just want to apologize anyway. You were absolutely right about Bill Cipher, and I was a fool not to listen. But let’s not distract ourselves with past mistakes. We’ve got this invasion to deal with. Toby here was just sharing some very interesting intelligence with me regarding our town’s visitors. Toby, if you would please.”

Toby related what he had told Ford, “The aliens call themselves Trilazzxxians…"

Ford interrupted immediately, “They’re actually pandimensional beings not aliens. I never encountered any in my journeys, but I’ve seen depictions. Please, carry on, Toby.”

“Anyway, they took me and implanted something in my brain so I could be a translator for them. They called me The Conduit.” Toby continued.

Dipper’s eyes shot wide. “Wow, you actually  _ were _ abducted then,” he said in amazement.

Toby scowled at him, the boy that had discredited him in front of the town. “Yes, and when I tried to tell people, I was made a laughingstock!”

“Heh, sorry about that.” Dipper cringed. The rationale for debunking Toby’s story seemed ridiculous in hindsight. It turned out the federal agents already knew about Crash Site Omega before they even arrived to investigate Toby’s claims, and if people had believed him, there might have been some kind of preparations for the invasion.

“Please continue, Mr. Determined,” Lillian interjected. “We’re all taking you very seriously now.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Toby nodded appreciatively. “The Trilazzxxians want something called the Kyteri. I’m not sure what it is, but apparently a Trilazzxxian ship had it when it crashed here a long time ago. If they don’t get it in two days they are going to start killing townspeople!”

A cold chill ran up Dipper’s spine. Pacifica and Wendy, as well as Wendy's friend Sam had managed to escape. Perhaps more had as well, but so many people were still trapped in the park.

Ford rubbed his chin. “I wonder; is this Kyteri a weapon or device of some sort?”

“There’s a captive Trilazzxxian at the military research base! Agent Powers and Agent Trigger seemed to have been able to communicate with it. Maybe they figured out what the Trilazzxxians were looking for and that’s the gizmo they took from McGucket,” Dipper speculated. It had to be connected. Trilazzxxians weren’t exactly common around Gravity Falls until the night before.

“That makes sense,” Ford agreed. “If the Kyteri were still at the crash site, the Trilazzxxians would have found it and had no reason to attack the town. Therefore, someone must have taken it before they had a chance to locate it.”

Dipper tented his fingers thoughtfully. “If it is the device that the agents took from McGucket, it’s probably at the military base where the Trilazzxxian is being held then. There was some kind of lab adjacent to the room where they were holding them.” He paused for a moment. “If we get it back for them, maybe they will leave without anymore fighting.”

“That’s pretty much what they made me say,” confirmed Toby.

Ford smacked the table with his hand. “Then we’ll infiltrate the base. We’ve done it before. We can do it again.”

“But what about Wendy’s Humvee? It’s stuck on Lookout Point...for some reason,” Dipper furrowed his brow thoughtfully. Wendy hadn’t provided any explanation for what she was doing up there in the middle of the night with Sam when the invasion began.

“We don’t need it,” Ford said. “I have a better idea. Let’s get to work on a plan.”

“Do you mind if our Coven takes a room in your gaudy museum, Stanford?” asked Lillian. “It will help us coordinate our efforts, and we can contribute to your defenses with protective spells in case the Trilazzxxians come back seeking retribution for today’s attack.”

“I appreciate your offer of help. It’s not really my museum, but I don’t believe there will be a problem finding space for you…Mentor.” Ford nodded. “See the proprietor, Soos, about arranging accommodations.”

* * *

Soos and Melody cleared the Shack’s party room and set up cots for their most mysterious guests. The dozen masked witches moved into the room and set about enchanting doors and windows so that no one could enter or see inside in case they perchance saw a witch they knew by sight without her mask. A station was set up for them to refill the vials and pouches in their satchel bags, using the system that Dana had pioneered through trial and error for maximum casting speed over the summer.

They set up a small altar in one corner with idols of their pantheon of goddesses and lit incense. It was decorated with strange magic symbols that thrummed in pitch with the witches’ incantations. They left small votives arranged in specific ways around the altar to implore their deities for blessings and protection. 

Dana had snuck around the Shack to find bits of the Pines’ belongings; a snip of yarn from Mabel, a chewed up pen from Dipper, Ford’s old glasses, a screwdriver from Soos’s toolbox, and one of Stan’s fake IDs. She left them on the small altar and consecrated them with smoke from a stick of incense, then asked Hecate, her favorite patroness, to look over her friends.

The table in Stan’s RV was converted into a bed for Toby Determined. The diminutive man had no clothes besides his pajamas, so the Shack was searched for something that might fit him. Mabel was in the process of talking Dipper into relinquishing a pair of shorts and a shirt that would be a little snug on Toby when they remembered the box of Stan’s old Summerween costumes in the attic storage. Toby was given his choice of whatever he could find and wound up dressed in a tie-dyed t-shirt and bellbottoms, to Stan’s dismay.

Wendy, Sam, and Pacifica were given cots in the parlor with the fireplace and had the large room to themselves. Wendy and Sam had brought nothing with them apart from the clothes on their backs and a beat up ice cream truck, so they sat on their cots and talked, holding a boisterous discussion recounting the events of the past day; their capture, escape, and their younger roommate’s heroics.

Pacifica flopped on her cot and quietly laid on her side with her back to the door and her knees to her chest. She half-listened to the older girls’ chattering, absentmindedly fiddling with the tear in her pajama pant leg and thinking about how she ripped it sliding the crater.

There was a knock on the door. Wendy stood and opened it, letting Mabel in with an armload of laundry. She sat down on Pacifica’s cot by her feet. “I see you’re a bit short on clothes again. Just like last year,” Mabel said with a faint smile. “I brought you some that might fit.”

Pacifica sighed. “Ugh. Fine! There better not be any llamas this time.” She closed her eyes and composed herself with a sniffle. “Sorry, Mabel. That was wrong of me. I’m just feeling a bit stressed. I do appreciate it.”

Mabel leaned in close and whispered, “It’s not because you and Dipper are staying in the same house again, is it? Sleeping just a floor apart? Passing each other in the hallway? Waiting in line for the bathroom together? Sitting across from each other at dinner?”

The blonde heiress rolled over to her other side so Wendy and Sam couldn’t hear her and groaned. “Thanks for the reminder. Why is this so difficult for me?” 

“It’s going to be okay. Don’t worry. It might be a little awkward, but I just saw you blow away a bunch of weird, old aliens in your pajamas. If you can handle that, you can handle a little awkwardness with a dumb boy. A wise woman once said that… Or something really close to that.” Mabel laid the clothes out on the cot. “Anyway, here’s a pair of shorts. They’re a bit tight on me, so I thought it might fit you better. And I know you would be swimming in one of my sweaters since I’m bigger than you are now, but you and Dipper are closer in size. So this is one I made for him. It’s supposed to be a present for our birthday.” She held up a gray sweater with the Bloodcraft: Overwatch skull logo knitted into it in black and red.

Pacifica sat up and examined it appraisingly. “Really cool, Mabel. Thanks.” She took the sweater and held it up to herself to see how it fit. “You know that old, fluffy llama sweater you gave me?”

Mabel nodded.

“I still have it. I put it on my teddy bear at home. He keeps me company when I feel alone.”

* * *

Soos pounded in the last nail on the side of a large, wooden crate. “How’s it look, Mr. Pines?” The box was eight feet long, four feet wide, and three feet tall, proportioned like an extra large coffin. It was made of scraps of pine scrounged from old shipping pallets that Soos kept around to help him frame up new attractions.

“You do fine work, Soos,” Ford said appreciatively as he and Dipper carried over a wide, flat device and set it in the middle of the crate. It was black and a few inches thick, but took up almost a third of the floor space inside the wooden box.

Dipper climbed inside the crate with an electric drill fitted with a Phillips bit and tightly fastened the object to the floor of the crate with screws. “There we go; as tight as Grunkle Stan’s fist around a dollar bill.”

“Thank you, Dipper.” Ford pointed to a wide button set flush into the top of the apparatus. “This activates the teleporter. When you push it, the entire crate will jump to the preprogrammed coordinates. Then we flip this switch on the side, push the button again, and it jumps back. There’s a twenty minute cool down period between jumps, because this thing has a serious heat problem. Now remember, this is still just a prototype. I don’t know how many jumps it will make before it breaks again, and if it overheats, it’s done for. So we need to do it right the first time. Understood?”

Dipper nodded. He understood the stakes were high. It was very likely they would only get a single chance. Not only because of the unreliability of the teleporter, but also the base would go into lockdown if they were discovered.

Ford passed him the invisibility blanket. “We’re going to need this again, so set it in there now so we don’t forget it. I’m going to go put on my General Simmons disguise and get the security spoofer.” The elevator dinged and Mabel stepped out as Ford stepped in and ascended to the private study he was still sharing with McGucket.

Mabel skipped into the lab cheerfully. “Hey, you guys. Abuelita wanted me to tell you your tacos are ready…whoa-ho!” She gasped in delight at the box in the middle of the room.

“Yes! Hambone, Abuelita’s tacos are da bo-o-omb!” Soos dropped his hammer into his toolbox and raced for the elevator. It opened and he stepped inside, leaving the twins alone together in the lab.

“Cool box!” Mabel ran over to look inside. “Do you remember when we made a fort out of an old cardboard refrigerator box when we were little?”

Dipper sighed inwardly and wondered if Mabel had gotten into the sugar. She was in a strangely giddy mood despite the grim events unfolding around her; all the lives on the line. “I guess, but what’s—” 

“Move over!” 

Dipper tried to object, but Mabel climbed over the side and into the crate next to him. 

“Oh, this is so awesome!” She grinned as she pulled the lid over the top, enclosing them inside. “We can have a drawbridge and a pretend tower.”

Years of experience as her sibling gave Dipper a premonition of what was about to happen. “Mabel, stop! Don’t hit the—”

“This can be the throne!” She sat down hard on the teleporter in the middle, activating the button, and the crate and the twins disappeared from the lab with a pop.


	5. The Quest for the Kyteri

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the accidental, premature teleportation, Dipper and Mabel must form an impromptu plan to steal the Kyteri from the secret military base

Invasion!

Chapter 5

The Quest for the Kyteri

Dipper and Mabel tumbled in the dark confines of the crate for several seconds before it popped back into existence in the back of the warehouse at the secret military research facility on the other side of Roadkill County, kicking up a cloud of dust. Ford had been correct; the prototype teleporter was radiating intense heat, making the inside of the crate unbearably hot.

Dipper tipped the lid up just enough to look around. The garage door was closed. Dust hung in the air. The only light was filtered in from outside through translucent fiberglass roof panels. All was quiet. 

“Seriously, Mabel!?” he whispered angrily. “Now we have to wait twenty minutes before we can go back and get Grunkle Ford, then  _ another _ twenty minutes to come back here. And that’s  _ if  _ the teleporter manages to work perfectly.”

“Pfft. It’s fine,” she blew it off. “We’ll just go get the Kyteri thingy ourselves.”

Dipper mulled it over. “Well, I guess we  _ do _ have the invisibility blanket. But we don’t have an officer’s uniform or the security spoofer to open locked doors.”

“I have this too.” Mabel pulled Ford’s mind-control necktie out of her sweater.

“W—Why do you have that?” It was the last thing he expected to come out of her sweater short of a fully prepared doctoral thesis.

“I was going to play a practical joke with it.”

No good was going to come of that. “On whom?” Dipper asked, cringing.

“I’d rather not say.” Mabel smiled enigmatically. “Do you think we can use it?

Dipper gave a beleaguered sigh. “I suppose...Okay, fine. We’ll get the Kyteri ourselves. But don’t do anything crazy. This is serious.”

They slipped out of the crate with the invisibility blanket on and crept to the personnel entrance of the warehouse. Dipper opened it and peeked outside. No one was in the immediate vicinity and the MPs at the research lab across the road were distracted, chatting idly with each other. It seemed like no one had noticed the loud pop that had occurred when they arrived. They took care to open the door as little as possible when they exited the warehouse and closed it slowly behind them to avoid attracting attention. The MPs never looked over.

“Where are we going?” whispered Mabel.

“There’s an administrative building down the road by the entrance gate. We’ll find someone with an ID badge there,” Dipper led her cautiously down the side of the road, lest they get run over by a Humvee. “You were going to play a joke on me with the necktie, weren’t you?”

Mabel couldn’t repress her grin. “Pacifica too. I was going to make you invite her to watch your Ghost Harassers DVD with you and a bowl of popcorn, snuggle you up nice and close, then turn off the tie and let you enjoy!”

“Ugh, you are so bad.” Dipper glowered at her with tangible irritation. He suspected this matchmaking plan explained her cheerful demeanor when she came into the lab. “Pacifica and I are just friends, Mabel. That’s it.”

“And you’re never going to be more than friends with that attitude, Dipstick!” She punched him in the shoulder, prompting a side-eyed glare with another helping of irritation.

“It was my choice,” he reminded her.

Mabel looked at him blithely. “And I thought you might change your mind if you remembered what it’s like to have a little romance in your life, bro.”

* * *

They grew quiet as they approached the front entrance of the administrative building, a pragmatic rectangular building made of cinder blocks that exuded bureaucratic priorities. It could’ve passed for a school or a prison in another setting. They sneaked inside past the civilian receptionist, a thirty-something woman with glasses who was busily typing away at a spreadsheet and didn’t notice the door move.

They entered a large, ‘open floor-plan’ style office with rows of desks with keyboards, mouses, and flatscreen monitors on each one as if they had been copied and pasted by photo editing software. There were no outside windows in the main room, instead colorful landscape posters were placed at carefully considered intervals by some naively optimistic office manager. It was still lunch hour and the desks were all unoccupied. The side walls were lined with private offices with their doors open. These offices had windows overlooking the base.

Dipper turned and whispered to his sister, “By the way, silence your phone. Once someone notices we’re gone they’re going to start texting and calling and spoil everything.” He led her along the side of the room, looking for a private office with someone inside. He read the placards on the doors as they went, passing the offices of various lieutenants and captains until he came to one labeled ‘Guest’. Underneath the placard was a piece of paper, taped in place, that read ‘Special Agent Trigger’. He peeked inside. Agent Trigger sat at an unadorned desk, working a mouse attached to a laptop with headphones over his ears. A half-eaten chili cheese dog sat on a greasy napkin in front of him.

Dipper gave a thumbs up to Mabel and they crept into the room under the invisibility blanket. As they rounded the desk, they could see his laptop screen. Trigger was playing solitaire on his work computer. 

“This will be easy,” Mabel said, placing the master tie around her own neck.

Dipper enlarged the loop of the slave tie and carefully held it over the agent’s head. He brought it down around his neck and cinched it tight with one quick motion. Trigger struggled for only a second before Mabel activated the master tie, then he went still.

She slid around her brother to the agent’s desk and pulled up the web browser on his laptop.

“What are you doing?” Dipper hissed.

“This jerk tried to turn us over to CPS. I’m going to email his browser history to everyone on his contact list.”

“We don’t have time to mess around,” her brother reminded her as she quickly clicked with the mouse.

She pressed Send. “Yeah, yeah. I’m coming.” Her appetite for vengeance sated, she switched the master tie from stand-by to active and tested out control over Trigger. He stood up and took a few steps synchronized to her motion. She activated the speech button and mouthed a few lines of an &ndra song. Trigger sang along. “It looks like control is good,” she said, returning settings to stand-by.

Dipper pulled the headphones off Trigger, tricky because the cord was under the mind-control tie. Then he untied Trigger’s black tie and fitted the mind-control tie in its place so it wouldn’t look odd and attract too much attention.

Mabel switched the master tie to active again and Trigger led the way past the receptionist and out of the administrative building with the twins following along under the invisibility blanket. The trio walked back up the road to the research building because Mabel didn’t know how to drive a Humvee, much less a car, much less control someone else driving either.

* * *

Based on Dipper’s previous experience at the research facility, the twins took their shoes off when they arrived at the only entrance to the steel-sided building. The MP to the left of the door greeted Trigger, “Afternoon, sir. Agent Powers have the Humvee?”

Mabel activated the speech button. Trigger cleared his throat. “It’s such a nice day; I decided to go for a walk.” He searched his pockets and produced his badge, turning it around in his fingers awkwardly before sliding it through the reader next to the door.

“Are...you okay, sir?” The MP raised an eyebrow.

Trigger opened the door and stepped inside then paused, holding the door open. “I’m fine, soldier.” He let it slam shut and walked slowly down the hallway. The MPs at the door looked at each other in confusion and shrugged.

Dipper whispered instructions to Mabel on where to go. Trigger led them down the hallway. He scanned his badge through the next reader and opened the door. Dipper and Mabel hurried through before she had Trigger let it close.

The long room with the examination tables was the same as before. Someone had made sure to replace the fallen trays with fresh, sterile equipment. As they headed down past the cell with the Trilazzxxian, one of the MPs guarding it saluted Trigger.

Mabel and Trigger saluted back in unison with their left hands.

The MP frowned. “Is something wrong, sir?”

“Mind your own business, private.” Trigger glared.

The MP regarded him curiously, then tapped the insignia patch on his chest. “I’m a corporal, sir.”

Trigger stopped, turned around, and growled into the MP’s face, “Well...you’re going to be a private if you don’t mind your own business!”

“Y—Yes, sir!” The MP stiffened at attention. He glanced down at the uncharacteristic splash of color on Trigger’s chest. “That’s a very nice tie, sir.”

Trigger huffed and continued to the door labeled ‘LAB’ with the twins following along stealthily. From the corner of her eye, Mabel glimpsed the Trilazzxxian in the cell and let out a soft gasp. It turned its head and watched Trigger go by with apparent disinterest.

Trigger awkwardly fumbled his badge again at the laboratory door, eventually opened it, and paused before entering. Dipper felt keenly aware that the MPs behind them were watching Agent Trigger intently. Fortunately, they didn’t seem overly interested in rankling the prickly agent further.

Inside the lab, the walls were lined with workbenches with a variety of modern scientific testing equipment that would have made Ford sing in delight. The Kyteri was located inside a plexiglass box similar to, but much more advanced than the one Ford used to scan the Northwest’s small clay pot. The twins recognized it instantly from Old Man McGucket’s rambling description. Green lasers rapidly moved across its surfaces in alternating criss-crosses.

A handful of lab techs in traditional long, white coats were working there. One was sitting at a bank of computer monitors watching a spreadsheet automatically propagate with data. Another was keeping an eye on the scanning in progress with a clipboard in hand. Three more were working on related projects in the back of the lab. None looked up immediately when Trigger entered the room.

He walked up to the scanning machine and cleared his throat to get their attention. “I have orders to move this, er, object to… uh, Area 51.”

“Area 51!?” The lab tech working at the computer leaped to his feet. “Are you serious? This was going to be our big break! Now you’re handing it over to those clowns?” The man placed his hand protectively on the laser scanner. “At least let us finish this test!”

“Look, I’m very sorry,” Trigger said stiffly. “Orders are orders, you know how it is. It goes all the way to the top.” He opened the scanner and picked up the Kyteri. A red light began blinking, indicating that the scan had been interrupted.

“Uh, sir.” The lab tech that had been watching the scan stopped him. “Don’t you think you should use the carrying case?” He nodded towards a large, black clamshell case with a handle that was on a shelf nearby.

“Right. The case. Good thinking.” Trigger pointed at the man with a wink and clicked his tongue. “That’s why you're on the fast track to a promotion.”

The lab tech beamed. “Really, sir? A promotion?”

“Really, Mabel?” Dipper echoed, whispering in her ear.

Mabel muted the tie. “It’s fine,” she whispered back. “He’s going to have a nice day now...at least until someone figures out this thing is stolen.”

Trigger opened the case and placed the Kyteri inside. The military researchers had polished it up nicely and its exotic metal frame reflected the lab’s fluorescent lighting with an odd, unearthly sheen. He slid home the latches and lugged it off the table, then carried it out the door, his invisible masters close behind.

“I’ve been thinking,” Mabel began. “We should free the Trilazzxxian too. They seem so sad, and the other Trilazzxxians will be happy to see them.”

Dipper rubbed his birthmark and cringed. “It’s a terrible risk, but ugh...I guess.”

Trigger stopped and addressed the MP whom he had reprimanded earlier, “Corporal, prepare the prisoner for transport to Area 51.”

“Yes, sir!” The MP gave a whip-smart salute and rushed to fulfill the order. He put on a surgical mask and latex gloves, then opened the cell and put hand-cuffs and leg shackles on the Trilazzxxian. They made no effort to resist. The MP forcibly hauled them to their feet and marched them out of the cell. “Here you are, sir.”

Trigger nodded. “Good man.” He used his free hand to grab the Trilazzxxian’s hand-cuffs and guided them towards the door. He set down the case and pulled out his badge to activate the door. If the MPs had been watching closely, they might have noticed the heavy black case completely vanish from sight.

When they reached the building entrance, Trigger tapped on the glass door. The MPs outside graciously opened it for him and the prisoner. Dipper and Mabel slipped out with the case right behind them. Trigger threw the MPs a right-handed salute. Mabel learned fast. 

They finally grew suspicious when Trigger guided the Trilazzxxian across the road to the warehouse’s personnel door and called over to him. “Sir, where are you taking the prisoner?”

Dipper and Mabel ignored them and focused on getting into the warehouse as quickly as possibly. Trigger finally managed to scan his badge smoothly and rushed through with the Trilazzxxian in tow. 

Dipper whipped off the invisibility blanket as they got inside the warehouse and slammed the door shut with the case. The interdimensional being regarded the two small humans curiously, but didn’t seem especially surprised or frightened to see them appear from out of nowhere. Mabel grabbed them by the hand and they ran down an aisle between stacks of crates towards the back of the building as fast as the being could run with manacles on their legs. Trigger kept pace with the others dutifully, as he was still under the control of Ford’s tie.

Dipper and Mabel vaulted into the crate as the personnel entrance burst open. The Trilazzxxian climbed in carefully behind them and Trigger toppled in as well, due to the negligence of his controller. The twins pulled the lid back on top of the crate as rapid footsteps echoed down the warehouse aisles. Dipper flipped the switch on the side of the teleporter and activated the button on the top. The crate blipped out of existence just as the leading MP caught sight of it.

* * *

The crate reappeared in Ford’s lab with a loud pop and a cloud of smoke. It wasn’t a quick, clean pop, like the bursting through an oily membrane. Rather the crate faded in and out and fluctuated in size and proportion before crashing back into normal space-time.

Ford and McGucket, who had been waiting for their return, hurriedly pulled the lid off, releasing still more smoke into the room. Dipper climbed over the side of the box first and fell to the floor. He laid against the side of the crate for a moment, coughing. “I think we fried the teleporter again.”

Ford looked at him admonishingly. “Well, did you get the Kyteri then?”

Mabel climbed out next and sat next to Dipper. “We got it, plus a little surprise.”

Ford reached into the smoking crate and found an arm. He pulled out Agent Trigger who stared blankly despite the smoke.

McGucket, who was waving the smoke away with his hat, screamed in alarm, scrambling behind a workbench and peeked over the top. “That’s one o’ them fellers what done creamed muh corn.”

“Relax,” Ford reassured him, pointing. “He’s wearing my mind-control tie. He’s perfectly harmless right now.”

The Trilazzxxian climbed out of the box last, holding the black case. Ford saw it and braced himself, pulling his ray-gun from the holster under his trenchcoat. He pointed it at the greenish-gray-skinned being.

Mabel put her hand on his arm. “Don’t worry. We rescued him. He’s with us now.” She fished a keyring out of Trigger’s pocket and undid the restraints on the Trilazzxxian. The being handed the case to her.

Ford holstered the ray-gun. “Excellent work, Dipper and Mabel. Now we can return the Kyteri and this member of their species and they will leave Gravity Falls.”

Mabel set the black case on one of Ford’s workbenches and flipped the latches. The lid sprung open, revealing the shiny, basketball-sized device. The Trilazzxxian looked inside and gurgled, “agiqrewiue efw Kyteri, grhwgw.”

Dipper frowned at them, “I…have no idea what they just said.” However, it was clear from their tone that something was not right.

Ford put his hand on Dipper’s shoulder. “Go get Toby Determined.”

Dipper ran to the elevator and disappeared inside. Minutes later, the door opened. Dipper guided Toby into the lab and presented the small, apprehensive man, now dressed in his hippie Summerween costume, to the Trilazzxxian.

They regarded Toby silently for a moment then gently placed their hand on the crown of his head. Toby’s eyes rolled back and he spoke in a deep, inhuman voice. “My name is Zadtig. This is not the Kyteri. The Kyteri is an enemy of the Trilazzxxians. It was once transported in a larval state on a prison ship before it crashed millions of solar cycles ago. We have periodically searched for the Kyteri ever since. It has the capacity to adapt to any situation by altering its form.”

The people in the lab stared at Zadtig in stunned silence.

Ford hung his head grimly. “I think the one you call the Kyteri is known to us by a different name. We call it the Shapeshifter.”

To Be Continued...


	6. In the Heat of the Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Shackers enter the bunker to retrieve the Shapeshifter and deliver it to the Trilazzxxians

Invasion!

Chapter 6

In the Heat of the Sun

Twelve people stood in a semi-circle in the cool shade of the forest around a thick metal pole disguised as a pine tree. It was carefully painted and adorned with artificial branches, so that its true nature was only revealed upon close examination. This false tree housed the entrance to a secret underground bunker wherein a terrible creature slumbered, deep in cryo-hibernation. Half the people present had encountered the monster in the past, and none of them were eager to repeat the experience.

The oldest members of the group were twins, Stanley and Stanford Pines, followed by Fiddleford McGucket, Toby Determined, Soos, Melody, then Wendy Corduroy and her secret girlfriend, Sam. The youngest members were twins Dipper and Mabel Pines, followed by their friend Pacifica Northwest, who was the youngest by just a few months. In addition to these earth people stood one Trilazzxxian scout named Zadtig, age unknown. They were all here to collect the frozen creature and deliver it to the Trilazzxxian invaders in exchange for the release of the townspeople.

Ford addressed those assembled, “The problem is that the cooling system for the cryogenic chamber is not portable. So once we turn it off, we have about half an hour, considering the current weather conditions, to deliver the Kyteri, AKA Shapeshifter, to the Trilazzxxian mothership at Circle Park. If we take longer than that, there’s an increasing possibility the Kyteri will leave its hibernation state, and that would be very, very bad.

“Fortunately, the Kyteri’s current form is that of my grand nephew, Dipper, as of last summer. So it’s quite small and easy to carry.” With that, he pointed a magnet-gun at a lever twenty feet off the ground, concealed as a tree branch, and pulled the trigger to open the underground bunker.

Mabel snickered as the tree sank into the ground with a rumble. “‘Quite small and easy to carry’,” she parroted Ford’s words, her impersonation sounding remarkably similar to her Mr. Upsidedownington voice.

Dipper gave her a searing glare. He was sensitive about his lack of stature.

Ford, Stan, Soos, and McGucket, all armed with their preferred weaponry, walked down the steps into the bunker to retrieve the Kyteri from its prison. The others stood outside in tense silence, staring down at the bunker’s below ground entrance, and waited.

Dipper glanced at Pacifica; she glanced back and caught him looking. He nodded to her. “Nice sweater.” She was wearing a gray sweater adorned with the bloody skull logo of Bloodcraft: Overdeath, a video game that she enjoyed and he struggled with. The sweater looked like Mabel’s handiwork, although it was not one he had seen before in her collection.

Pacifica smiled back at him and self-consciously smoothed out the sweater’s soft material with her hands while Mabel, overhearing them, smiled to herself.

* * *

Agent Powers knelt down among the crates in the back of the secret military base’s warehouse. He ran his finger over the cold concrete floor and rubbed the dust he collected against his thumb. “Somehow, Trigger and the alien exited this warehouse without being seen.”

A twenty-something woman with nondescript features in a black business jacket and pencil skirt, standing behind him jotted a note on a legal pad. “Yes, sir.” A junior agent fresh from the academy, she was his temporary partner.

“It appears as if they were working together to steal the weapon. Why would Trigger do that? What was his angle?” Powers mused to himself. “And why did he email his browser history to everyone in the department?”

“Beats me, sir.”

Powers frowned thoughtfully. “I went through it diligently, hoping there was some kind of clue, but all I got was a repetitive stress injury in my wrist.” He stood up, a soft brace visible around his right forearm. “I’ve spoken to Colonel Hirsch. He’s deployed search parties in every direction. If Trigger or the alien are anywhere within a hundred miles, they will find them.”

* * *

Trigger stared blankly at a ladder propped up against the outside wall of a dilapidated, wooden cottage covered in gaudy signs. He did not shield his eyes despite the warm sun on his face. A necktie that wasn’t his remained around his neck, although he didn’t quite remember how it got there. He couldn’t seem to control his own body or maintain a train of thought for more than a few seconds. He wondered if the chili cheese dog was still sitting on his desk.

A frilly, pink apron stood out over the drab, dark colors of his suit and he had a spray bottle of cleaning solution and a rag in his hands. Someone had handed them to him a moment ago, but he couldn’t recall who it was.

An aged hispanic woman squeezed his arm. “You have big muscles,  _ mi amigo _ . Now you help Abuelita clean house.” She twisted a knob on the back of the matching necktie around her own neck. She took a step forward and Trigger was compelled to do the same. He began climbing the ladder towards a large, triangular window.

* * *

Ford led the way up the spiral stairs from the bunker entrance with his ray-gun in hand. Soos and Stan carefully followed. Between them they held a taut blanket, which they were using as a stretcher to carry the frozen Kyteri. McGucket brought up the rear with his banjo held like a club.

Mabel and Wendy grimaced in dismay as the Kyteri appeared at the top of the steps. The memories it invoked were unpleasant. Their one and only encounter with the shapeshifter was remarkable for its creeping horror and paranoia. If the creature got loose, they literally couldn’t trust anyone. The only thing that had saved Wendy from an axe in the chest was a familiar signal to Dipper to distinguish her from the monster that had taken her form.

Pacifica, seeing the Kyteri for the first time, gasped, unnerved by the haunting rictus frozen on the facsimile of Dipper’s face. It was fixed as if mid-scream and the creature’s boy-arms were held up as if struggling against its fate. Its posture seemed somehow familiar, but the unsettled feeling it gave her dissuaded her from dwelling on it.

Soos’s pickup truck was parked on a freshly cut forest path several dozen yards away without the enlarged magnet gun it carried the previous day. The Shackers had spent most of the morning clearing the old trail that the original construction crew had made in order to build the bunker deep in the woods. In the intervening thirty years, the trail had become choked with forest growth and was nearly invisible to those that didn’t know or couldn’t remember that it had ever existed.

Soos and Stan carefully carried the Kyteri to the truck and placed it in the middle of the back seat without touching it more than necessary to avoid transferring any of their own body heat to it and thus hastening its awakening. Soos climbed in behind the steering wheel and started the engine. The air conditioning roared to life and struggled to make the interior of the vehicle pleasant for humans, Trilazzxxians, and the frozen Kyteri alike. Ford slid into the back, next to the Kyteri and behind Soos, and arranged the quantum disintegrator so that it was aimed directly at the Kyteri’s head. He pointed an infrared thermometer at the monster and took a reading then made a mental calculation. “Twenty-three minutes left.”

Zadtig got in on the other side of the Kyteri. Melody climbed into the middle front seat next to Soos. Toby, in his hippie costume, sat in the front passenger seat, within easy reach of Zadtig in case he needed to speak to the others.

Dipper pulled out Journal 3 and wrote a magical text message to Dana, alerting her that they were about to begin driving into town. She and the other eleven witches had left early that morning, stealthily slipping into Gravity Falls to reconnoiter and get into position to provide support in case things went wrong.

While he was writing, Mabel encouraged the others to quickly get into the bed of the truck. Stan and McGucket climbed in and sat with their backs against the cab with Mabel between her great uncle and the roboticist. Wendy and Sam climbed in as well, sitting on the fenders facing each other.

Dipper finished his message and helped Pacifica get into the back of the truck, offering his knee to use as a step. He raised the tailgate behind her, then climbed up onto the back bumper and awkwardly scrambled over it himself. As the last two in, they were obliged to sit at the end of the truck’s bed with their backs to the tailgate. It was the windiest, noisiest, and bumpiest spot in the truck. Mabel smirked at Dipper from her much more comfortable position, centered behind the cab.

Stan knocked twice on the back window, the signal to Soos that everyone in the bed was ready to depart. The truck, loaded with eleven humans, a hibernating Kyteri, and a Trilazzxxian scout bounced down the rough trail as fast as Soos dared to go. Stan groaned and complained about his back at every bump, wishing aloud that he had asked ‘that nice hag’ for a magic spell that would make him more comfortable. 

Dipper glanced over at Pacifica on his right. Her expression was surprisingly placid despite the bone-jarring ride. He couldn’t help but admire how much she had changed since he had met her the previous summer when she was a spoiled brat who taunted and sneered at him and Mabel. He doubted  _ that _ Pacifica would be able to endure their current situation so well.

The truck’s right front wheel heaved over a deadfall log. Dipper braced himself for the inevitable lurch of the rear wheel, clutching the tailgate and the left side of the bed. The right rear tire followed its leader over the enormous bump and Pacifica was thrown into the air.

To the surprise of them both, she came down hard on Dipper’s lap with an inelegant “Oof!”.

He reached out to steady her. “Are you okay?”

“Sorry. Yeah, thanks,” she replied, blushing. She slid back over next to him.

Dipper blushed as well, then looked to see if the others had noticed. Wendy and Sam were talking loudly to each other over the noise. Sam, who was sitting on the right fender, hadn't seemed to have been disturbed by the large bump at all, riding it out like a champ. Stan had his eyes shut tight and was cursing Soos’s driving. McGucket was distracted, scratching himself. Mabel was looking away, hiding a smile behind her sweater sleeve. She glanced at him and he glared back.

When the bouncing seemed like it would never end, Soos turned the truck off the path and onto Gopher Road. It was hard and smooth compared to the trail and the ride in the back became bearable. Soos was able to reach a much higher speed as well.

Out from the forest shadows, they felt the friendly warmth of the sun on their faces. Dipper took off his hat so it wouldn’t blow away in the wind. Pacifica closed her eyes and rested the back of her head against the tailgate, feeling her hair billowing behind her in the wind. “I’m totally getting a convertible,” she murmured to no one in particular.

Dipper looked off into the forest, watching the trees go by. He forgot about the mission and lost himself in the moment. Even though they had only been in the sun for a few minutes, the bare steel of the truck’s bed was already radiating warmth. He let his hand rest on it, feeling the pleasant heat.

Pacifica must have had the same idea. Her hand fell to the bed of the truck as well and brushed up against his. He was caught off guard by a strong compulsion to grasp it. He weighed the potential consequences. She would certainly want to discuss their ‘just friends’ status, and he had to admit, the idea of being in a relationship suddenly had appeal to him again. When did that happen, he wondered? However, the bus ride back to California was only days away. Was he willing to tolerate a long-distance relationship for the next nine months? A wave of anxiety rose from his belly. “No,” he thought to himself, fighting through the sudden nausea. “You’re overthinking things; just like Mabel always says. Trust yourself.”

He gently slid his hand under Pacifica’s and entwined his fingers with hers, palm to palm. She didn’t pull away like he half expected her to; instead she squeezed his hand affirmingly. Without opening her eyes, she slid over against him and rested her head on his shoulder. Stray strands of her hair whipped in the wind and tickled the side of his neck. A sense of euphoria permeated his being, easing the churning inside him, and he smiled to himself.

He suddenly remembered there were five other people sitting within a few feet of them and turned his gaze back from the forest. Wendy and Sam were still talking to each other. Dipper thought they might even have been purposefully  _ not _ looking at them, because Wendy had the slightest hint of a smile in the corner of her eyes. Stan was distracted, adjusting the volume on his hearing aids against the wind noise. McGucket appeared to be trying to catch a fly. On the other hand, Mabel had clearly been watching. She was pointing her phone camera right at Dipper and Pacifica.

She noticed him look at her on the screen of her phone and grinned broadly. “Scrapbook-ortunity!”

Dipper shook his head and sighed, then closed his eyes and rested his cheek against the top of Pacifica’s platinum blonde hair, inhaling the heady aroma of champagne and orange blossoms. He idly made a mental note to ask her if that was a lotion, perfume, or shampoo that smelled so good. 

Ahead of him was the meeting with the Trilazzxxians, an awkward discussion about relationships with Pacifica, a scolding directed at Mabel, and an agonizing bus ride home. But in the back of a pickup truck, holding hands with the rebellious socialite with flecks of green in her pretty dark blue eyes, he found contentment in the moment.

The respite was broken by the sound of propeller blades whirling overhead. Everyone looked up to see a black helicopter flying low towards town. Zadtig ducked low in their seat to avoid detection, muttering in their own gurgling language. Ford tapped Soos on the shoulder and gestured for him to pull over. He opened the truck’s sliding back window and yelled out without taking his eyes off the Kyteri, “Dipper, contact our witch friends and find out what they see.”

Dipper reluctantly released Pacifica’s hand and pulled Journal 3 and a pen out of his vest pocket.

Dipper:

We just saw a helicopter.

What’s going on there?

Hecate:

The army is here

Lots of helicopters

Armored trucks too

Dipper:

Are they fighting the Trilazzxxians?

Hecate:

Not yet

They’re surrounding the mothership

“The witches say the army is there. No fighting yet, though,” Dipper reported.

Ford took another reading with the IR thermometer. “We’ve got ten minutes. Let’s hope they don’t slow us down.” He turned to the driver. “Make haste, Soos!”

Soos pushed the accelerator to the floor and pulled the truck back onto the road.


	7. Running the Gauntlet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Shackers have made it to the edge of Gravity Falls, but the military has become aware of the Trilazzxxian occupation. Can the Shackers deliver the Shapeshifter before all heck breaks loose?

Invasion!

Chapter 7

Running the Gauntlet

Agent Powers stepped out of the black helicopter, instinctively ducking despite the whirling blades being well above his head. The junior agent followed along gamely. Colonel Hirsch’s search parties had quickly discovered the alien ship in a small town on the other side of Roadkill County. Gravity Falls; Powers had been there before. It had a reputation for being a bit weird. An officer approached them as he left the impromptu helipad set up in the Gravity Malls parking lot. “Lieutenant, what’s the sitrep?”

The lieutenant held a touchscreen tablet in front of Powers as they walked towards a MRAP, scrolling through black and white reconnaissance photos with detail notes typed on them in bright yellow. “Sir, there’s no sign of Agent Trigger yet. The town’s pretty messed up, but the aliens have taken no hostile action towards us. However, they’re holding a lot of people hostage under the primary spacecraft. The rest of the town seems to have been abandoned.”

Powers gestured for the junior agent to join the conversation. “If Trigger isn’t there, then they may not have the weapon yet. We need to attack before they can get it. Otherwise, it will be too late.” He turned back to the officer. “Take me to your field commander. We have much to discuss.”

* * *

The mothership loomed large over the roof of the truck in Dipper’s perspective from the rear. Armored vehicles and soldiers on foot lined Gravity Falls’ streets, many yelling at them to stop or turn back as they blew by. A squadron of black helicopters was circling menacingly around the mothership, but the Trilazzxxians seemed content to wait within the safety of their force field. 

Dipper‘s eye caught a flash of light near the left side of his vision and a red ripple propagated across the Trilazzxxian mothership’s energy bubble. A fraction of a second later a powerful shockwave poured over him, hurting his ears and rattling the truck. The smaller saucers began to emerge from the underside of the Mothership and engaged in a swirling game of cat and mouse with the helicopters overhead. More explosions followed and the staccato rattle of machine gun fire joined in. The twinkle of laser bolts indicated that the Trilazzxxian soldiers had advanced through the energy bubble and were returning fire on the army.

Soos slammed on the brakes and swerved as a damaged helicopter spun into the middle of the street in front of them. The direct route to the mothership being blocked by wreckage and fire, they veered onto a side street. Ford slid open the back window again. “Dipper, is there anything the witches can do to stop this madness?”

He opened the journal again.

Dipper:

Can you put all the soldiers to sleep?

Or something?

Hecate:

Not on this scale

Dipper:

We need an opening

Hecate:

We could induce a small, localized panic if you tell me where

Dipper:

We’re coming up on Park Street

Can you do it where Park enters the Trilazzxxian camp?

Hecate:

You can count on it

Dipper passed the directions to Soos by a game of telephone. He told Wendy, who told Mabel. Mabel knocked on the window and told Ford, who passed it on to Soos. Soos cranked the steering wheel and barely managed to make the left turn onto Park Street. Everyone in the bed of the truck slid sideways as he jumped a curb and sideswiped a stop sign with the fender.

There was a burst of bright pink light ahead of them and suddenly soldiers were fleeing the opposite direction without discipline or decorum. Many had abandoned their weapons while some fired wildly behind them. An MRAP almost struck the Shackers head-on in its driver’s haste to retreat. Dipper clenched his teeth; the thought occurring to him that they might be rushing towards some new Trilazzxxian weapon rather than a witch’s panic spell.

Ford pointed the IR thermometer at the Kyteri again. “We’re running out of time! It’s almost out of hibernation.”

They passed all the soldiers and the truck approached the advancing Trilazzxxian front line. Soos slowed down to avoid running over wreckage and debris that had accumulated in the street from two battles, weaving between ruined cars and piles of rubble that used to be walls. 

Zadtig opened their window and stuck their bulbous, greenish-gray head out, waving to their Trilazzxxian comrades so they wouldn’t open fire on the on-coming vehicle. 

The Trilazzxxian forces parted to allow the truck entrance to their encampment. It passed through the energy bubble with a bloop and the Shackers finally saw the townspeople huddled in the park. The people of Gravity Falls looked hungry, tired, and desperate. Many lacked proper clothing as they were taken from their homes in their pajamas.

Zadtig laid the palm of their hand on Toby’s head. “Go to the platform.” They pointed to a large disk in the park directly under the center of the mothership. It appeared to be a section of the mothership’s hull that had been released and settled on the ground. Soos blared the truck’s horn and people scattered out the way, screaming and crying.

Ford leaped out of the truck, and he and Soos picked up the corners of the blanket that the Kyteri was resting on, hastily pulling it out the rear door. They began to run it to a group of six Trilazzxxians who were climbing off the platform.

Zadtig ran ahead to meet them and spoke rapidly in their gurgling language as they approached, pointing to the inert Kyteri. The six from the platform produced bright silvery restraints lined with discs of an exotic alloy that appeared to be purpose-built for the Kyteri. The other Shackers gather around to watch as the Trilazzxxians bent down to place the straps on the monster.

Watching with morbid curiosity and revulsion as they adjusted the restraints to fit the previous summer’s Dipper, Pacifica gasped. Something had moved. Something about it had changed. “Its eyes. It blinked!”

Ford and Soos released the blanket, letting it fall to the ground with a thud. Ford unslung the quantum destabilizer from his shoulder and pointed it at the Kyteri, but it suddenly morphed into its native form, shedding the restraints. It evaded his aim and scuttled between the legs of the Trilazzxxians. It brought itself upright amongst them and engaged them in melee combat, grappling and striking with its great strength and quickly incapacitating the group.

Ford brought the quantum destabilizer to bear again. The Kyteri changed its form a second time and took the shape of Mabel, yelling, “Ford, no!”

He hesitated to pull the trigger for only a second to make sure the real Mabel was still standing where he remembered her. The Kyteri leaped at him as he fired. The blast hit a glancing blow to the side of the creature’s torso and left a deep, smoking hole in the dirt.

It roared in pain as it collided with Ford, knocking him to the ground. The wound in its side knitted shut as it changed its shape again, taking the form of Ford himself. It stumbled to its feet and fled to the edge of the energy bubble, still rippling with waves of red as the military forces attacked it from all directions. The Shackers with ray-guns and the Trilazzxxians aimed their weapons and fired upon the dangerous creature. The Kyteri dodged erratically as it ran, making it impossible for Ford or anyone to hit it. They gave up and pursued it on foot.

The shapeshifter, still disguised as Ford, emerged from the energy bubble on Adams Street near the Royal Ragtime Theater, pretending to be a fleeing hostage. “Don’t shoot! Don’t Shoot!” it pleaded in Ford’s voice with its hands up as it ran towards a group of soldiers taking cover behind a military Humvee.

The soldiers ushered it towards them and, spotting the Trilazzxxians chasing the Kyteri, layed down a barrage of suppressive fire in their direction. The Trilazzxians were forced to give up the pursuit and take cover behind a pile of building rubble. They continued to shoot at the Kyteri with their laser weapons and the soldiers protecting it as well.

Pacifica and Dipper left the energy bubble ahead of the other Shackers chasing the Kyteri. Bullets and laser bolts zinged by them from two different directions. They were in the crossfire. Pacifica grabbed Dipper’s arm and pulled him to safety behind a wrecked car.

Dipper peeked through the broken windows. “It’s getting away!”

Pacifica held her ray-gun in both hands, turned and braced herself over the fender of the car. She lined up the sights on the Kyteri as it neared the soldiers’ position and let off a shot. It was a near miss.

“What level Deathslayer did you say you had?” Dipper asked teasingly.

She rolled her eyes at him. “You’re the worst, Pines. If I had a sniper rifle...”

The Kyteri changed shape from that of Ford to its native form, then to thirteen year old Dipper, facing them. “No!” it cried.

Pacifica relaxed, let out a breath, and squeezed the trigger gently. The ray-gun’s blast struck the fake Dipper directly in the groin to the surprise and alarm of the real Dipper, his sympathetic wince earning him a smug smirk from Pacifica.

The soldiers, who had witnessed the Kyteri’s transformation, redirected their fire towards it, laying down a withering volley at close range. Multiple fully-jacketed slugs struck the Dipper-shaped monster. They mushroomed and tumbled as they penetrated its flesh, but the wounds knitted back together quickly. The shapeshifter limped into the shelter of the Royal Ragtime Theater, Gravity Falls’ only cinema.

Pacifica slid down off the fender and sat next to Dipper. “We need to talk about what was going on with us in the back of that truck. It’s kind of distracting me.”

He felt his face get warm. “Um, yeah. I think we should too, but uh...can it wait until no one is shooting at us?”

“Ugh, fine.” She rolled her eyes again as the rest of the Shackers caught up with them.

“Where did it go?” asked Ford.

Dipper pointed at the building with a large neon marquee, now unlit and broken. “Into the theater.”

“I’m not familiar with contemporary cinema, but that strikes me as a bad thing.”

“There’s a cartoon about racing snails playing now,” Mabel pointed out optimistically.

“Let’s hope it found a nice regency era romantic comedy to watch,” Stan joked.

Soos rubbed the back of his neck worryingly. “It’s worse than you think, dudes. The theater is holding a kaiju anime movie marathon this week. They have, like, posters, figurines, and stuff in there. I was planning to go with Melody before all this happened.”

Two MRAP armored trucks came around the corner from a side street and rolled up to the Shackers. Agent Powers stuck his head out the window of the closer one. “What are you civilians doing in the middle of a warzone?”

Ford ran to the side of the MRAP to speak to him from cover. “Sir, we were negotiating with the Trilazzxxians for the release of the hostages. They will release them and leave in peace if we subdue a hostile lifeform that has taken refuge inside the theater.”

“You’re certain? We tried talking to a couple of the aliens. Couldn’t understand a thing they said.”

Ford looked him in the eye with a steady gaze. “The ones at the ship have a translator. I’m telling you the truth with absolute certainty.”

Powers keyed his earpiece with his finger. “Bravo Company, prepare for an assault on the theater.”

“One last thing.” Ford advised him, “The hostile lifeform in the theater can take the shape of anyone or anything it sees. It is extremely dangerous.”

The agent nodded and keyed the earpiece again. “This is a Code Mauve. Shoot anything on sight, hostile or friendly.”

Twenty soldiers disembarked from the two MRAPs and ran to the theater. Half of them formed up, flanking the entrance, while the other half ran around to the back of the building. Powers and his junior partner stepped out of their vehicle to watch the operation with the Shackers.

As soon as the second team of Bravo Company covered the rear exit, the order was given and eight of the ten soldiers in the front stormed the entrance. Powers listened on his earpiece as they went room to room. After thirty seconds, multiple short bursts of automatic gun fire began to emanate from the interior of the dark building. “They found it.”

The intensity of the gunfire crescendoed quickly, then began to wane as one gun after another went quiet. The last gun stopped firing when a soldier was thrown through the glass entrance and into the street. Powers keyed his earpiece. “Team Two, go!”

After another short delay, the gunfire started up again. This time the roof of the theater ruptured like an egg shell as a giant abomination grew out of it. It rapidly approached the height of a fifty story building. It’s body was mostly black and sickly slender, but it had a skull like that of a bird perched directly on top of its torso and boney shells covering its shoulders. A glowing, red sphere thrummed in its narrow chest. It hunched its back and took a step out of the ruined theater.

The Shackers recoiled in terror as they attempted to comprehend the sheer magnitude of the threat they now faced. The Kyteri seemed to have found an enormous monster from an anime exhibit. Its size rivaled the cliffs that ringed the valley.

Powers screamed into the microphone linked to his earpiece and hidden under his lapel, “All units attack…that  _ thing _ !”

Soos held up a hand for the agent’s attention. “Dude, the proper term is kaiju.”

* * *

The Gravity Falls Coven didn’t wait for deliberation or coordination. The dozen witches emerged from cover, some speeding to the action in pink bubbles, and began flinging spells at the kaiju’s lower extremities. Fireballs, ice blasts, and bolts of lightning struck home, to little effect, except to annoy it. The monstrosity aimed a kick and sent a pair of witches flying backwards to be saved by a cushion of wind summoned by another of the coven.

Powers touched his ear piece and fired off more orders. The black helicopters withdrew from their engagement with the flying saucers and began firing rockets and auto-cannon at the lumbering monstrosity, causing it to lash out at them with its lanky arms. The helicopters wove tight formations, eluding its cumbersome swings as they unleashed ordinance wherever they could. 

The battle coalesced around the Kyteri as more soldiers arrived on foot and in armored trucks. They filled the spaces between the witches and the air filled with the rattle of automatic gunfire. The witches stopped flinging spells briefly to cast protections on the soldiers, then resumed. Soldiers manning turrets on the MRAPs fired grenade rounds that left the launch tubes with thoomps, arced through the air, and exploded with percussive blasts against the fifty story tall Kyteri.

Finally, the Trilazzxxians joined the battle. The saucers swooped in, firing lasers like twinkling red beams into the Kyteri as it spread its arms wide and tried to down them. They attacked together in long strafing runs before peeling away in a dozen different directions and converging again for the next pass like a swarm of insects.

The Trilazzxxian ground forces fully abandoned their encampment and fought alongside the witches and human soldiers they had so recently been opposing. Needles of red light stung the Kyteri’s legs from every direction, combined with crackling gunfire and blasts of magic. The hostage townspeople were released en masse and fled like scared animals, heading away from their former captors and the enormous monster that dwarfed even the Trilazzxxians’ mothership.

The Kyteri was surrounded by its teeming enemies, yet seemed impervious to damage, despite its maddened fury. It swung at the airborne craft and stomped at the fighters on the ground, sending them scattering with each step.

“I hate to do it, but I’m going to have to call in the air force with some bigger hardware,” Powers remarked worryingly.

Soos put his hand on the agent’s arm. “No way, dude. That thing took the shape of a Seraphim from Emo Genesis Avenging-Lion. Even an A-bomb won’t kill it. It’s got its own force field. I’m, like, an expert at this stuff,” he said confidently.

Powers furrowed his brow grimly. “How do we defeat it then?”

“I’ve got an idea, dude,” Soos said as a grin creeped across his hamster-like face. He turned to Dipper. “Can the crystal flashlight make me as big as that thing?”

Dipper shook his head. “I left it back at the Shack, but even if I had it, it's not powerful enough. I don’t think the crystals in the forest are even big enough for that.”

“When I studied the size-altering crystals, I noticed that the intensity of the light source was also a factor in their effectiveness. What if you had a light source brighter than the sun?” Ford interjected. He reached into his trenchcoat and handed Dipper his ultra-bright penlight.

Dipper stood up. “I don’t know what the limit will be until we try it, but it’s worth a shot.” He stuffed the small flashlight into his vest pocket, pulling out Journal 3 at the same time. “I’m going to ask Hecate to help too.” He turned to the back of the book and quickly scribbled a request on the page linked to Dana’s grimoire, then closed it and ran with Soos and Mabel in the direction of the truck.


	8. Big in Japan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Shapeshifter has taken on the form of an enormous monster from anime. Can Soos utilize his expertise to save his hometown?

Invasion!

Chapter 8

Big in Japan

Soos, Dipper, and Mabel pulled into the Shack’s parking lot at the same time that Dana arrived on foot, thanks to her speed spell bubble. Dipper and Mabel leaped from the truck’s cab and ran in the front door to collect the crystal flashlight, leaving Soos outside with Dana.

“So, Hecate...you’re a little witch, dude,” Soos chuckled nervously. He was wary of the girl in the strange mask and soft, dark cloak who casually exercised such incredible power.

She smiled, bemused by Soos’s uneasiness. “Yep, that’s right.” Her voice sounded chipmunk-y due to the speed spell. It increased the pace of everything about her, including the frequency of her voice.

To Dana’s ears, Soos’s speech sounded deep and slow. “Whoa, you’re not scary at all with that voice. You should, like, do a witch-themed Christmas album or something.”

She laughed. “You mean like, ‘Curse These Halls’ or ‘We Wish You A Merry Solstice’? What about ‘Frosty, the Snow Golem?”

Soos’s eyes lit up. “Dude, you’re a genius! You need to sign a record contract, A.S.A.P.!”

Dipper ran back outside. He had switched the crystal apparatus from his old flashlight to Ford’s ultra-bright penlight with a few small adaptations to fit its smaller diameter. “Where’s Mabel?”

“I’m right here!” Mabel charged out the door behind him, towing Agent Trigger by the mind control necktie around his neck. “We should take this guy with us and reunite him with his partner. Abuelita had him dusting and I felt kind of bad for him.”

Dipper turned to Soos with a cockeyed grin. “Are you ready to grow up, buddy?”

“Heck yeah, dawg.”

“Okay. Close your eyes. This thing kinda burns.” Dipper shined the new and improved crystal flashlight on his friend. Soos enlarged rapidly and was soon taller than the Shack. Taller than the mighty ponderosa pines. Almost as tall as the cliffs surrounding the valley.

Soos looked around. “Dude, I’m gonna be huge in Japan!” he bellowed.

Dipper nodded to Dana, who dug around in her satchel for the correct unguents, which she smeared on her palms. She pressed her hands onto the toe of Soos’s boot and intoned the magical incantation with a thrumming energy that blurred the air around her and made her pink speed bubble twinkle.

Soos flexed his arms, which rippled with muscle mass, then formed one hand into a fist and punched the palm of the other. It sounded like a peel of thunder and echoed around the valley. “I think I just leveled up, dude! This is gonna be awesome!”

Mabel pulled the mind control tie up and over Trigger’s head. He glanced around, blinking. “Where am I? Why am I wearing an apron? Does anyone know where my chili cheese dog is?”

Soos scooped all four of them up and walked back to rejoin the fight. He strode into town, in too much of a hurry to be mindful of property damage. Every step shattered the smooth paved surfaces of the streets, rupturing the gas and water mains beneath. Electrical wires bunched against his ankles and tore loose from their poles. He flattened dozens of cars within the first few blocks.

He found the Kyteri in the Town Square, where it was flailing at its relatively tiny attackers like a barroom drunk swatting at flies, occasionally downing a saucer or sending an MRAP cartwheeling away. Soos set down his passengers near Ford and the others, who had managed to find Lillian in the chaos. She had erected a magical barrier around them, not unlike the mothership’s red bubble.

Soos pulled himself up to his full height and stomped towards the shapeshifting monster. The ground forces saw him coming, or rather felt the ground trembling at his approach, and disengaged from the fight. He plowed into the Kyteri from behind, staggering it into the white belltower of St. Theseus’s, flattening the oldest church in Gravity Falls.

Instead of turning around, the Kyteri morphed, so that its head and chest switched to the back of its body and its joints flipped directions. It emitted a shrill scream that caused the forests surrounding the town to quiver.

It pounced on Soos, knocking him flat on his back, destroying half the buildings in the square at once. It clawed at his face and body, but Dana’s defensive spells held it back. Soos rolled, flattening yet another block, and was on top of the Kyteri. He let loose a flurry of furious blows to its bird-skull head, but it bunched its legs beneath him and launched him into the air with a double kick. It regained its feet and quickly leaped after him.

The Trilazzxxian mothership’s energy bubble turned opaque red and deflected inward as Soos’s gigantic body impacted on it. But it held together and rebounded him back towards the Kyteri like a bullet. He swung his right fist in a roundhouse punch that broke the sound barrier with an alarming crack, shattering the few remaining intact windows in Gravity Falls. 

His knuckles connected with the Kyteri’s abdomen in mid-air, crumpling it’s lanky, black form like a rag doll. It fell on the Gravity Falls Museum of History, collapsing the imposing stone edifice, and layed stunned in the rubble. Soos was on top of it in a heartbeat. He grabbed its unsettling visage with one hand, pinning it down, and beat the red orb on its chest over and over with vicious brutality. He landed one last strike with a howl of rage and desperation; the red orb shattered. Unconscious, the Kyteri reverted to its native form and didn’t move.

The ground forces carefully approached the two giants. Dipper ran ahead of them with the new crystal flashlight, flipped the crystal orientation, and shined it on Soos and the Kyteri, returning them to their original sizes.

A squad of Trilazzxxians advanced with their silvery restraints and placed them on the broken shapeshifter. They picked it up and carried it away towards the mothership with little pomp or formality.

Zadtig and another Trilazzxxian approached the Shackers, who were resting near the ruins of the museum. The second Trilazzxian bore a circlet of exotic material around their head, signifying leadership. The two beckoned to Toby, who willingly submitted to his role as Conduit. The leader placed their hand on his head and he spoke in a deep voice. “After thirty million cycles, the war criminal known as ‘The Kyteri’ is once again in our custody. We are grateful for your assistance and regret resorting to compulsion and violence.” 

The leader and Zadtig motioned for Ford to join them in a private conversation. Ford walked with them a short distance away. Dipper watched them go; based on Ford’s gestures, he ascertained that his grunkle was describing to the leader how the Kyteri came to be in his possession.

Soos sat on a piece of rubble as Dana removed the strength and defensive spells from him before they could expire and inflict him with curses. “Oh, man,” he panted, out of breath. “I can’t believe I fought a kaiju. It’s, like, my best anime dream come to life.”

Wendy punched him in the shoulder playfully. “You’re a hero, man. You saved the town…” She took in the extensive damage around her. “Well, kind of, I guess. At least everyone is free now.”

Dipper smiled at his fellow Pterodactyl Bro. “You did great, Soos. You’re going to have to show me some of those moves you did.” He turned to Wendy. “Hey, Wendy did you see how he—”

Wendy wasn’t listening. She had her arms around Sam’s waist and was kissing her intently. 

Dipper stammered incoherently as his brain adjusted to the new information. He finally looked at Mabel. “Did you…? How long...?”

Mabel grinned at him. “I wanted to tell you so bad, bro-bro! But she swore me to secrecy.” She surreptitiously held up her phone and took a picture of the two girls with her brother looking addle-brained in the foreground for a future scrapbook.

“I, uh...“ Dipper shook the last bits of shock from his brain. “Well, okay then...I guess.”

He felt a smooth hand slide into his and turned to find Pacifica at his side. He raised his eyebrows. “Did you, uh…want to have that talk now?”

The platinum blonde girl shook her head and looked at him coyly. “We can talk in a little bit.” She leaned into him and pressed her lips to his, temporarily warping his perception of reality. He felt as if the two of them had just fallen through a portal. The others vanished. The acrid, probably toxic smoke and jagged ruins disappeared. They were the only two people in existence. He kissed her back, pulled away, marveled at the blue-ness of her eyes, then leaned in again for another. When the kiss ended, the world was back. Mabel was there, pointing her phone at them and grinning. Dipper mentally cursed that phone.

Ford returned to the group of people huddled around Soos while the Trilazzxxian representatives departed for the mothership. Mabel waved to Zadtig, who waved back as they left. 

Agent Powers cleared his throat. “Attention, all of you. Since you seem to be significantly involved in this mess, I’m going to have to take you in for a debriefing.” He turned to his partner. “And where have you been?”

Trigger looked around in confusion. “I...I don’t really know. It was kind of a blur. I remember walking around the base, voices in my head, the alien, some kind of weird wooden box, then doing dishes, falling off a ladder, and a giant hamster-man carried me here. It was like a really bad dream.”

Powers raised a skeptical eyebrow. “You were gone for more than twenty-four hours, Trigger. You emailed everyone in the department your browser history and promised to demote a MP and promote a lab tech.”

The discussion was interrupted by an intense rumble emanating from Circle Park. They all turned to see the Trilazzxxian mothership lift into the air. The remaining smaller saucers formed up around it in an escort formation. Slowly they rose until they were three thousand feet above the ground. A hatch on the underside of the mothership opened, and a beam of green light swept across the whole valley. Then a large, kaleidoscopic portal opened and it flew into it with its escort. The portal winked out of existence immediately afterward.

Agent Powers blinked twice, then looked around, marvelling at the absolute destruction. “Where are we? What the heck happened here!?”

Ford glanced at the others then stepped up to the agent. “Our town just suffered a huge earthquake. Thank goodness you and your soldiers arrived to coordinate disaster relief.”

“Of…Of course we did. Haven’t you people ever heard of building codes!?” Powers keyed his earpiece and began shouting orders into the microphone in his lapel.

Ford turned to the other Shackers and spoke privately, “What was the last thing any of you remember?”

“I think...we got Old Man McGucket to speak,” said Dipper, scratching his head.

Ford nodded. “It’s just as I suspected. The whole town has been memory-wiped,” —he tapped the side of his head with a metallic thunk— “except me. Well, who wants to go get some food while I fill you in on what really happened? I think there’s a new shawarma place a few blocks over.”

Stan looked dubiously at the wreckage around them. “I don’t think the shawarma place survived the earthquake. It’s a shame, I hadn’t eaten there yet.”

“What about Greasy’s?” Pacifica volunteered. “It’s pretty much just made out of a log, so it probably survived. And I open on Saturdays, so I know how to get in. I can make pancakes for everyone.”

* * *

Dipper and Mabel sat in a booth at Greasy’s and listened to Ford recount the events of the previous two days while Pacifica brought out a massive platter of pancakes for everyone that she’d prepared herself. Mabel dubbed them pazcakes. 

Dana, Lillian, and a third witch they met up with on the way to the diner, all still masked, sat in a booth behind them. Soos and Melody sat with Wendy and Sam at a third booth, while Ford, Stan, Toby, and McGucket took seats at the counter.

Pacifica doled out pancakes to everyone, then she sat down in the booth with the twins, opposite them and pulled a pancake for herself off the platter.

“So that’s everything?” Stan asked when Ford finished.

Ford thought for a moment. “Well, it’s everything I was present for, anyway. I don’t think we’ll ever know exactly what Dipper and Mabel did at the secret research base or how Toby and the girls escaped from the park, for example.”

“I can’t believe I was super huge and fought a kaiju. That’s so awesome, dude! All those years of watching anime finally came in handy; just like I told Abuelita they would,” Soos chuckled.

Lillian tented her long fingers thoughtfully. “So, if you’re telling the truth; neither the people of Gravity Falls, nor the members of the military will remember seeing any of our witches. And even the members of our own Coven who were taken hostage wouldn’t remember seeing the free twelve fighting?” 

Ford nodded sternly. “The only people who know are in this room, Mentor.”

Lillian was silent for a moment, then pulled her domino mask off her face and lowered her hood. Dana and the other witch followed suit, revealing their identities. The third witch was a woman in her thirties with brunette hair and the same distinctive chin as Dana.

Pacifica gasped to see her classmate appear from beneath the white zanni mask, but remained silent otherwise. Based on Ford’s tale, any of these three witches could bring crackling lightning from the sky at a moment’s notice or curse her with some dreadful malady.

Lillian stood up from their booth. “In light of that, Stanford; and the good character you seem to have demonstrated, I have a confession to make. When I broke off our relationship all those years ago, I was afraid that demon was going to use you…”

“Sadly, that’s what happened,” Ford said solemnly. “I was badly deceived and the whole world nearly paid the price.”

“And I was also afraid he would use me…us, to get to you.” She gestured towards herself and the third witch.

The room was suddenly silent as everyone stopped to process her words.

Lillian beckoned for the third witch to stand with her. “ You see, when I left I had just found out I was newly pregnant. This is my...your...our daughter, Ellen.”

Ford’s mouth dropped open. He trembled as he pulled himself up from the stool and held his hand out to her. “Ellen?”

Ellen stepped towards him and took his hand, smiling tentatively. “Just Elly is fine.”

Lillian continued, “And of course, youthful indiscretion seems to run in our family.” She rolled her eyes like any much put-upon mother. “Elly had her own daughter fourteen years ago.” She beckoned for her granddaughter to stand. “You’ve already met Dana. Although she’s known as Hecate to some of you. Apparently she thinks herself a goddess.”

Dana ran to Ford and hugged him around the middle. Ford was overcome by emotion and collapsed back onto the stool. “I…I don’t know what to say. Between my studies and having been trapped in other dimensions for thirty years, I never thought I would have my own family. This is beyond my hopes and dreams. Elly, Dana, I hope you will let me be a part of your lives.” He wiped a tear from his eye.

His daughter and granddaughter nodded in agreement.

Mabel scrambled out of the booth she shared with her brother and friend, dragging Dipper with her. “We’ve got cousins, Bro-bro!” They piled on the family hug.

Stan muttered, “I’m not one for hugging all that much, but what the heck? It’s not every day I get a new niece and grandniece.” He wrapped his big arms around them too. “It’s all my fault you never got to meet ‘em, Poindexter. I’m sorry.”

Ford put a hand on his twin’s shoulder. “It was never your fault, Stan. It was always Bill Cipher.” He convulsed with a mighty sob and soon the whole Pines family was crying happy tears.

After the Pines had their fill of laughter and hugs, Soos stood up and chuckled nervously. “That was pretty intense, huh dudes? And it’s a hard act to follow, but since everyone’s here, what the heck, right?” He turned to Dipper and Mabel. “I was hoping to do this earlier, but the last few days have been a bit of a rush, ya know? And frankly, I don’t remember most of it. But you two dudes helped make this happen, so I wanted to do it before you guys went home.”

Stan slapped him on the shoulder. “Well, what is it, Soos? You’re killin’ us here.”

Soos turned to his girlfriend and got down on one knee. He took her hand in his. “Melody, you’ve made me such a happy man. You’ve brought joy, and love, and legitimate business skills to the Mystery Shack. Dude, will you be Mrs. Mystery?” He pulled a small, velvet box out of his cargo shorts’ pocket and opened it. Inside was a golden engagement ring with a large, clear princess-cut diamond.

Melody picked up the ring and slipped it on her finger, watching the facets glitter in the sun shining in through the window. “Oh yes, Soos!

Mabel’s phone camera was ready to capture the moment. “Wooo! Go, Soos!” she hooted.

After everyone congratulated the newly engaged couple, Pacifica rested her cheek on her hand. “It’s been a strange day, but I can’t help but feel like something’s not finished.”

Dipper frowned. “Yeah, it’s weird. I have that same feeling. It’s like something is missing. But I guess if Grunkle Ford didn’t see whatever it was, we’ll never know.” He shrugged. “Are you going to come see us off when we leave?”

“Puh-lease. I’ll be there, even if I have to steal a car to do it.” She smiled smugly. “Are you going to text me when you’re gone?”

Dipper placed his hand on his heart. “I promise I will.”

Mabel kicked him under the table with the side of her foot.

“No, it’s true! For real this time. I will!” he protested.

Mabel reached across the table and put her hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure that he does.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I said what about...denouement at Greasy's!
> 
> Sorry, you probably don't get that reference unless you lived in the 90s.
> 
> The codeword for the vigenere cipher at the end of "How the Grunkle Stole Summerween" is WITCH.


	9. Epilogue - The Best of Both Worlds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pacifica awaits a birthday gift from Dipper

Invasion!

Epilogue

The Best Of Both Worlds

Pacifica sat at the dining room table in the Mystery Shack, staring blankly out the window at the dull, blustery weather. It was October fourteenth, the day before her birthday and a Monday, but school was out for Columbus Day. She had received a text from Dipper, telling her to be at the Mystery Shack to receive a surprise delivery from him at 2pm. Her phone said 2:37pm. She silently cursed whatever delivery service Dipper had hired. Patience was not her strongest virtue.

Tourist season in rural Oregon had ended when the school year began and the Mystery Shack gift shop was closed. Melody was working on her laptop across the table from Pacifica, looking at the websites for wedding venues in the area. Pacifica appreciated that the woman, Soos’s fiance, was sitting with her as she waited, despite the fact that they didn’t know each other very well. “Why is this package being delivered here again?” Melody asked.

“I guess he’s, like, worried that my parents will find it before I do if it’s delivered to my house,” Pacifica said irritably.

Melody looked up from her computer. “You know, Ford was here over the weekend to see Dana’s soccer game.”

“I thought he and Stan were at sea.” Pacifica looked at her quizzically. As she understood it, Ford and Stan had left Gravity Falls in Stan’s dilapidated RV, towing their large boat behind them, several weeks after Dipper and Mabel had gone home by bus.

Melody shrugged. “They are. But sometimes he walks out from behind the vending machine like he’s just been down in the lab the whole time.”

Pacifica didn’t have time to wrap her mind around that paradox. There was a loud bang from the attic that shook the building and a picture fell off the wall. It was the picture Mabel had taken of Soos proposing to Melody in Greasy’s Diner after the Trilazzxxian invasion. She had framed it and sent it to the couple as an engagement gift. 

Pacifica had admired the photo when she arrived. It was a happy memory for her, having shared in the joy as if she were one of the close-knit family herself. It was also, strangely, one of the few memories she had of the invasion. The rest was a blank, erased from her mind by the departing Trilazzxxians, she was told. Ford had related that she had been rescued from the Trilazzxxian encampment by Toby Determined, along with Wendy and another girl named Sam. Then somehow Toby had also rescued Dipper, Mabel, and Dana, and Pacifica had set off a powerful weapon, blowing a hole in a large spaceship. After that, she basically tagged along while the Pines and Soos fought some weird shapeshifter monster with a bunch of army guys and some witches. She wasn’t sure she believed it, but Dipper and Mabel trusted that Ford was telling the truth.

Pacifica and Melody looked at each other in alarm. They were the only ones in the building; no one else was there to make noise. Soos had driven to town to buy maintenance supplies to winterize the Shack. Before they could react, they heard an animal skitter across the floor upstairs and squeal shrilly.

Pacifica ran up the stairs to the attic bedroom with an electric leafblower in hand, expecting to see gnomes. The air was choked with dust that had fallen from the rafters. She looked around the room for the source of the noise. The mattresses and shelves were bare. No posters hung on the walls. No dirty laundry spread haphazardly. The only sign that the twins had even been there was three thick, red books lined up on the nightstand, each with a golden six-fingered hand on the cover. In the middle of the floor, centered between the beds, was a strange, black platform a few inches thick, like the control pad for Dancy Pants Revolution. The air shimmered around it as it dissipated heat.

She located the source of the squealing as the dust settled, a pink mass huddled on what had been Mabel’s bed. Pacifica put her hand on the trembling creature and a short-snouted, cherubic face looked up at her. “Waddles?” She set down the leaf blower on the floor.

The phone in her other hand chimed. She looked at it, then sat down next to Waddles and angrily typed.

Dipper:

Is Waddles there?

Pacifica:

You sent me Mabel’s pig as a birthday present!?

I took off work for this. You’re the worst.

Dipper:

But he’s there, right?

Is he okay?

Pacifica:

He’s fine. Just a little scared.

I’m not accepting Waddles, Dipper!

You get here and take him back!

Dipper:

OK ;-) 

clear the pad

Pacifica:

What? Pad?

Lights on the side of the low platform lit up as it began to hum. Pacifica pulled her feet off the floor and picked up Waddles. She cradled him in her arms as she braced herself for what she feared would be an explosion. She pinched her eyes shut.

There was another loud bang and another cloud of dust. It swirled in the air in the middle of the room above the platform. The humming stopped and Pacifica opened her eyes. Two figures stood on the pad in the dusty air, coughing. The taller one was clearly a girl, while the other, about Pacifica’s height, was a boy.

“Ow, my ears!” whined the taller girl.

“Sorry. I forgot to account for the elevation difference. Next time we’ll wear earplugs,” the shorter boy replied.

Waddles wriggled out of Pacifica’s grasp and leaped into the arms of the girl.

“Oh, Waddles!” the girl exclaimed.

Pacifica snapped out of her surprise and tackled the two fourteen year olds standing on the platform before the dust even cleared. All of them fell in a heap on the other bed. “Oh my gosh, how did you do that!? Is it witch magic? Did Dana summon you?”

“Nope!” Dipper smiled with satisfaction. “It’s a teleportation pad.” He propped himself up on his elbows on the mattress. He was wearing the Bloodcraft sweater Mabel had made for him for his birthday under his vest and Wendy’s bomber hat to combat the autumn chill. “When Grunkle Ford found out about Elly and Dana, it inspired him to create a new teleporter based on the prototype. He discovered that building it as a paired device system made it significantly more stable. So he salvaged parts from the crashed saucers from the invasion to make another terminal. One is on the Stan o’ War out at sea—”

Pacifica interrupted him excitedly, “And this is the other one?”

Dipper smiled gently. “Not quite. The one paired to the Stan o’ War is in the lab downstairs. He can come and go as he pleases now, adventuring with Grunkle Stan and visiting Elly and Dana.”

The three of them sat up on the edge of the bed. “So where did this one come from?” Pacifica asked.

“So, a couple of weeks after we got home I was looking through my phone for that picture of Soos proposing so I could frame it for them; I found a few pictures that I didn’t remember taking. They’re in this card. Have a look.” Mabel handed her a birthday card, grinning. 

Pacifica opened it. The first picture was of her and Dipper sitting next to each other in the back of a truck, holding hands. Her head was on his shoulder and he was staring off into the woods, smiling. The picture induced a strange mixture of feelings that gave her goosebumps. She looked up at the twins in confusion. “I don’t remember this.”

Dipper nodded. “I didn’t either at first when Mabel showed it to me. But then I looked at it for a while, little bits of it came back to me. It’s from the day Soos fought the shapeshifter.”

Pacifica stared at the picture, trying to force some kind of memory to resolve itself in her mind. All she could manage were fragments of emotions.

“Look at the next one!” Mabel told her excitedly.

Pacifica moved the second picture to the front. Her jaw dropped. It was a picture of her and Dipper standing in the ruins of the Gravity Falls Museum of History, locked in a kiss. She felt her face turn warm. She looked up and Dipper’s face was turning red as well, and he was smiling as he observed her reaction. She looked down at the picture again and willed for the memory to return as quickly as possible. Again, all she could manage was just a hint of a feeling.

Dipper continued, “So when Mabel showed me the pictures and I got a little bit of the memories back, I realized this was what was missing from Grunkle Ford’s story. He never saw us holding hands or kissing or anything. I knew we had to talk about this.” —He gestured towards the pictures— “So, Mabel and I asked Grunkle Ford to make another pair of teleporter terminals. He put this one in here. The other one he shipped to us in pieces. I had to put it together and wire it into our parents’ electrical box.”

“He set fire to the garage,” Mabel interjected.

He rolled his eyes. “It took me a month to get it to work right.” 

“Waddles was our guinea pig.” Mabel giggled, booping her pet on the nose.

Pacifica concluded, “And you two can come to visit any time now, just like Ford.”

“No more epic bus rides for us.” Mabel grinned. “Now Gravity Falls is closer to Piedmont than Oakland is.”

Pacifica looked at the two pictures again and focused. There was no distinct memory there; just a slight hint of excitement like a distant echo. But that feeling was enough to tell her that there had been a memory in her mind of these events; that they had actually happened to her. The Trilazzxxians had erased their kiss!

Dipper looked at her expectantly. “Do...you remember? Can we talk about it?”

Pacifica stood up and glared at him stormily. “Dipper, you’re the worst. You friendzoned me, like, three months ago! You think I’ve just been sitting here since you left... _ pining _ over you!? You could have at least sent me these pictures when you found them last month. I might have been able to remember as much as you!”

“It was my idea, Paz!” Mabel came to his defense. “I thought it would be better this way, face to face. I didn’t know it would take this long to get the teleporter working.” 

Dipper didn’t say anything. The crestfallen expression on his face said it all. He surely felt the blame for taking so long installing the terminal.

Pacifica instantly regretted her angry reaction. She sat back down between the twins with her elbows on her knees. “The truth is, I didn’t really get over it; just being friends. I thought I could, but it still hurts. It hurts everyday. It hurts everytime I get a text from you. It hurts being around you, knowing I can’t hug you without making you uncomfortable.”

Mabel took her friend’s hand. “Oh, Paz. You’re right. I should have sent you the pictures.”

Dipper put his arm around Pacifica’s shoulder and pulled a birthday gift from his vest pocket. It was a cylinder, twelve inches long and three inches in diameter, wrapped in festive paper decorated with birthday cakes. He handed it to her. Pacifica released Mabel’s hand and slowly peeled the paper off to reveal a clear plastic tube. Inside it was a vibrant red rose with a tiny capsule of water on the end of the stem.

“It doesn’t have to hurt anymore,” he said softly. “This summer I wanted to just be friends because I was afraid of being hurt by a long-distance relationship. But we’ll never be more than a Mystery Shack apart now. If you stand on that pad and push the button in the middle, you’ll be in my room before you know it. Just, you know, text me first in case I’m changing or whatever.”

“I don’t know why we had to put it in  _ his _ room.” Mabel rolled her eyes.

“Mom thinks it’s a video game dance pad. We had to put it by my game system,” Dipper insisted. He looked back at Pacifica. “So what do you think?”

She opened the end of the tube and carefully pulled the rose out so as not to prick herself on the thorns. She held the deep red blossom to her nose and inhaled. Dipper had picked well; it was fragrant and healthy. “Is this how it starts?”

“If that’s what you want.”

She didn’t answer right away. Instead, she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. “I never want to forget again.”

Dipper hugged her back. “You can’t pay me to forget now.”

Mabel stood up and smiled in satisfaction. “Well, that’s settled, I guess. Score one for the expert matchmaker!” She pulled out her phone and started texting. “Since we’re here, we should see if our peeps want to hang out. Huh, Dip?”

There was no response.

“Guys?” She looked up from her phone to find Pacifica and Dipper locked in a tender kiss, oblivious to her presence. She blew a raspberry at them, but they didn’t react. “Ugh, great. I’m the third wheel now, aren’t I?” She switched her phone from text messenger to camera and pointed it at the new couple to take a picture. “Scrapbook-ortunity!”

_ They forgot the day they won, _

_ Hearts afire in summer sun. _

_ Loving sister, faithful friend, _

_ Mabel matchmade in the end. _

The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TL;DR: The story is done, but I am not. Subscribe to this series, if you haven't already, to see more adventures of Dipper, Mabel, Pacifica, and the rest as I transition to the sequel.
> 
> I am a very late convert to the Gravity Falls fandom. I had heard about the show over the years, but it wasn't until I got Disney+ for my kids that I had a chance to watch it in its entirety. As with most fans, the series finale left me with mixed feelings; happiness and loss. I respect the story that Alex Hirsch told and that it had to come to an end, yet I also felt compelled to see more adventures from our intrepid heroes, the Pines family. I have enjoyed the fan works that others have written, but I knew I had to make my own. That's what brought me to this point. A special thanks to my wife for supporting my strange proclivities, and to my readers.
> 
> I have many more adventures planned for the Shackers, so stay tuned. I hope to improve my writing quality going forward. I know it isn't the best. I expect there will be about six stories that will take place between Pacifica's birthday and the beginning of the following summer. The summer will be the beginning of the sequel. In the meanwhile, I have one or two things planned to write for The Owl House. If anyone is interested in that, subscribe to my username.

**Author's Note:**

> The codeword for the Vigenere cipher at the end of Project Moo Book is Conduit.


End file.
